The INSIDE TRACK

How an engine upgrade and better cooling would unlock the fighter jet’s true power

The U.S. Department of Defense has an ambitious plan to update the F-35. And amid all the documents, discussions, and details, there is one very important factor: the demand for the cooling system.

Since the fighter jet first took flight, the amount of cooling needed to control waste heat from its many electronic systems has doubled. And that demand will continue to grow, as officials add to the increasingly high-tech stack of sensors, jammers, and other systems that make the F-35 what it is: a flying data center and command post. Or, as military officials sometimes call it, a “quarterback in the sky.”

At the moment, the future F-35’s cooling needs are out of reach. But they don’t have to be.

To make them possible, two Raytheon Technologies businesses – Pratt & Whitney and Collins Aerospace – are proposing a pair of improvements:

• An upgraded power module for the engine would boost performance and provide the compressed air the cooling system requires.

• A new, optimized cooling system that uses compressed air more efficiently.

Combining those upgrades, company experts say, would give the F-35 a fast and cost-effective way to stay formidable for decades – well into the forthcoming era of even more advanced aircraft.

“The F-35 has to be not just equal to the nearpeer fighter threat. It has to be superior,” said Rick “Slash” Crecelius, a former F-35 pilot and retired U.S. Navy captain who now works as a director for customer integration at Pratt & Whitney. “But the technological advantage is a temporal thing. If we take too long, we start falling behind.”

The December 16 launch of Boeing’s O3b mPOWER communication satellite marks a milestone for Vicor Corporation (VICR NASDAQ), whose high-performance, radiation-tolerant modules support Boeing’s satellite mission. Boeing’s O3b satellite will help deliver broadband internet access to the “other 3 billion” (O3b) people around the globe where access is limited or nonexistent.

Drawing on an extensive heritage, Vicor power modules are ideally suited for powering advanced communications ASICs and FPGAs that require a very low-noise operating environment enabled by Vicor’s soft-switching, high-frequency ZCS/ZVS power stages. The thermally adept modules in an SM-ChiP package provide superior density and efficiency.

The complete source-to-point-of-load solution comprises four SM-ChiP modules powering advanced ASICs and FPGAs from a 100V bus: the BCM3423, a 100V input, 300W, K=1/3 bus converter; the PRM2919, a 33V input 200W regulator; a VTM2919 150A cur- rent multiplier with an output of 0.8V; and a VTM2919 50A current multiplier with an output of 3.3V.

The modules, which are manufactured in Andover, Mass., (USA) are available in high-density SM-ChiP BGA packages. Chips are rated for operation from –40 to 125°C.