Graduation Semester and Year
Fall 2026
Language
English
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering
Department
Electrical Engineering
First Advisor
David Wetz
Second Advisor
Alex Johnston
Third Advisor
Wei-Jen Lee
Abstract
Military advancements in cheaper, smaller, and more robust weapon systems have led to establishment of Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs). DEWs require enormous amounts of power, cooling, and therefore, power electronics and their supporting accessories. Current generations of DEWs have simple topologies for power distribution that have a large Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) footprint. Many applications in the military have limited SWaP areas, so the current topology can lead to design integration issues. The control Printed Circuit Boards Assemblies (PCBAs) have hundreds of connections that monitor pressures, temperatures, flows, and more of the cooling system for DEW. This can lead to manufacturing issues with so many wires being done manually. Military applications must be high reliability, robust, and easily manufacturable. The Accessory power supplies for supporting DEW equipment have several different power requirements, forcing the manufacturer to use several different power supplies, most that don’t meet the military standards required for the field. DEW power distribution methods, control PCBA manufacturing possibilities, and model development, and DEW accessory power supply strategies will be discussed here.
Keywords
Military, Energy, Weapon, Circuit, Power, Directed, Navy, Laser, Army, Manufacturing
Disciplines
Power and Energy
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Ensign, Austin J., "SWaP and Manufacturing Challenges in DEWs" (2026). Electrical Engineering Dissertations. 4.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/electricaleng_dissertations2/4