Low temperature performance of a boost converter with MPP and HTS inductors

Low temperature performance of a 150 W, 50 kHz, 24/48 V boost PWM DC-to-DC power converter is reported. The efficiency of the power converter using a molypermalloy powder (MPP) core based inductor went up from 94% at room temperature (23/spl deg/C) to 95.9% at liquid nitrogen temperature (-196/spl deg/C). A BSCCO based high temperature superconducting (HTS) inductor with a transition temperature of approximately -158/spl deg/C was compared to a MPP core based inductor in terms of the power converter performance at liquid nitrogen temperature. The use of the HTS inductor in the power converter tested yielded no significant performance improvement over the same power converter with the MPP inductor. The experimental results are discussed along with the HTS inductor characteristics.