Abstract: A spacecraft power bus regulation method and apparatus for a spacecraft. The spacecraft has solar arrays (10) and a battery (30) coupled to the spacecraft power bus (32) to drive electrical loads (34). A bus voltage limiter (38) controls the flow of current from the solar arrays while a bidirectional battery controller (36) controls power flow into and out of the battery. A processor (46) monitors current flow and battery condition using sensors (40, 42, 44, 48) and controls the bus voltage limiter accordingly. Auxiliary control is provided by the solar array drive (24) which controls the orientation of the solar arrays with respect to the sun.

Abstract: This regulating system for an array of solar panels or the like consists of a tap connection into the array, and a boost switching regulator connected to the tapped array. The tap connection divides the array into first and second portions, and the switching regulator is connected so that its power-input terminals are across only one of the two portions of the array. The power-output terminals of the switching regulator are connected across the load (i.e., across the entire array), and the sensing or feedback terminals of the regulator receive a signal which acts as a measure of voltage or current at the load.Boost regulators do not dump overvoltage into a dissipative load; hence the invention prevents local heat generation and resulting spacecraft heat-balance problems of conventional dissipative regulators.

Abstract: A multiphase capacitor diode voltage multiplier for high power applications. A multiphase circuit comprising N strings of diode-capacitor arrays in M multiplier stages receives N alternating voltage inputs, each varying in phase, from a power stage. The multiphase multiplier circuit configuration enables current sharing among the N strings to reduce component stress.

Abstract: An indefinite number of batteries is connected in parallel to provide current to share a load. Each individual battery current is compared to an average value to regulate each battery controller so that each battery supplies its share of the current.