Failure mode effects and criticality analysis (FMECA) of Electronic Power Conditioner (EPC)

Abstract

MPM is a RF amplifier. It incorporates subsystems like Electronic Power Conditioner), RF line and the thermal management unit. The EPC caters to all the low and high voltage power requirements of the MPM sub-systems. The RF line consists of a TWT and the associated RF plumbing. The thermal management unit consists of a heat sink with integrated fans to keep the temperature of the system within limits under all operating conditions. EPC is a high efficiency, compact dc-dc converter to cater conditioned power to various electrodes of Travelling Wave Tube (TWT) and Solid State Power Amplifier (SSPA) with fault monitoring, protection, sequencing and command interface modules along with housekeeping functionality. The EPC, developed by MTRDC, Bangalore, comprises of PCB boards with several types of components to accomplish its intended functionality. FMECA is a reliability evaluation/design technique for examines the likely failure modes within a system, in order to determine the effects on system performance. In FMECA possible failure modes are classified according to their concussion on mission success personnel and equipment safety [1]. This paper is based on MIL-HDBK - 1629A, to calculate the failure mode of system.