Submarine optical repeater with high voltage isolation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10827650-B2
Application number	US-201916377128-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 5, 2019
Priority date	Apr 6, 2018
Publication date	Nov 3, 2020
Grant date	Nov 3, 2020

Abstract

The systems and methods described herein provide a submarine optical repeater in which a plurality of thermally conductive, electrically insulative, ceramic members form a hollow structure having an interior volume that is maintained at a relatively high first voltage when compared to a relatively low second voltage maintained external to the hollow structure. A conductive element at the first voltage disposed in the interior volume provides power to optical repeaters disposed on the interior surface of the hollow structure. Power flows radially outward from the conductive element to the optical repeaters to the surrounding environment about the submarine optical repeater. The thermally conductive ceramic members electrically isolate the optical repeaters from the second voltage while providing a thermally conductive pathway for the heat generated during the operation of the optical repeaters to dissipate into the surrounding environment.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A submarine optical repeater, comprising:
a plurality of thermally conductive ceramic members arranged to form a hollow structure that defines an internal volume, has a plurality of internal surfaces, and an external perimeter;
wherein each of the plurality of thermally conductive ceramic members includes an electrically insulative material having a first dielectric strength;
wherein each of the plurality of thermally conductive ceramic members includes a thermally conductive material having a first thermal conductivity;

a power distribution member disposed at least partially in the internal volume, the power distribution member including at least one conductor to carry a relatively high first voltage; and
at least one optical repeater disposed on at least one of the plurality of inner surfaces of the hollow structure and coupled to the at least one conductor; and
optical system components coupled to the one or more optical repeaters, the optical system components disposed on an external surface of at least one of the plurality of thermally conductive ceramic members.

2. The submarine optical repeater of claim 1 , further comprising:
a thermally conductive material disposed about at least a portion of the external perimeter of the hollow structure;
wherein the thermally conductive material includes a material having a second thermal conductivity that is greater than the first thermal conductivity; and
wherein the thermally conductive material includes a material to operate at a relatively low second voltage.

3. The submarine optical repeater of claim 2 , further comprising:
a housing disposed about at least a portion of an external perimeter formed by the thermally conductive material;
wherein the housing includes a material having a third thermal conductivity that is greater than the first thermal conductivity; and
wherein the housing includes a material to operate at the relatively low second voltage.

4. The submarine optical repeater of claim 1 wherein the plurality of thermally conductive ceramic members comprises a plurality of planar, thermally conductive, ceramic members.

5. The submarine optical repeater of claim 4 wherein the hollow structure comprises a hollow polygonal structure having the internal space defined by the interior surface of each of the plurality of planar, thermally conductive, ceramic members.

6. The submarine optical repeater of claim 5 wherein the plurality of planar, thermally conductive, ceramic members comprises a plurality of planar, thermally conductive members that include polycrystalline aluminum nitride.

7. The submarine optical repeater of claim 5 wherein the plurality of planar ceramic members comprise three planar ceramic members arranged to form a hollow triangular polygonal structure.

8. The submarine optical repeater of claim 5 , further comprising electrically insulative corner members disposed at each vertex of the triangular polygonal structure formed by the three planar ceramic members.

9. The submarine optical repeater of claim 1 wherein the at least one optical repeater comprises at least one shunt converter circuit (SCC).

10. The submarine optical repeater of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of thermally conductive ceramic members comprises a ceramic member having a thermal conductivity of from 25 Watts/meter per Kelvin (W/m-K) to 250 W/m-K.

11. The submarine optical repeater of claim 10 wherein each of the plurality of thermally conductive ceramic members comprises a thermally conductive ceramic member having a dielectric strength of from 120 kilovolts per centimeter (kV/cm) to about 200 kV/cm.

12. The submarine optical repeater of claim 1 wherein the power distribution member further comprises at least one of: one or more shunt converters, one or more surge suppressors, or one or more DC/DC converters coupled to at least one of the one or more optical repeaters.

13. A method of fabricating a submarine optical repeater:
arranging each of a plurality of thermally conductive ceramic members to form a hollow structure having an internal space defined by an interior surface of each of the thermally conductive ceramic members, each of the plurality of ceramic members having a respective internal surface and including an electrically insulative material having a first dielectric strength and a first thermal conductivity;
disposing a power distribution member at least partially in the internal volume of the hollow structure, the power distribution member including at least one conductive member to operate at a relatively high first voltage;
disposing a thermally conductive material about at least a portion of an external perimeter of the hollow structure, the thermally conductive material to operate at a relatively low second voltage, the thermally conductive material including a material having a second thermal conductivity greater than the first thermal conductivity;
disposing one or more optical repeaters on at least one of the plurality of inner surfaces of the hollow structure; and
conductively coupling the one or more repeaters to the at least one conductor.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
disposing a housing about at least a portion of the thermally conductive material, the housing to operate at the relatively low second voltage, the housing including a material having a third thermal conductivity greater than the first thermal conductivity.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein arranging each of the plurality of thermally conductive ceramic members to form the hollow structure having the internal space defined by the interior surface of each of the thermally conductive ceramic members comprises:
arranging each of a plurality of planar, thermally conductive, ceramic members to form the hollow structure having an internal space defined by an interior surface of each of the plurality of planar, thermally conductive, ceramic members.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein arranging each of the plurality of planar, thermally conductive, ceramic members to form the hollow structure having the internal space defined by the interior surface of each of the plurality of planar, thermally conductive, ceramic members comprises:
arranging each of the plurality of planar, thermally conductive, ceramic members to form a hollow polygonal structure having the internal space defined by the interior surface of each of the plurality of planar, thermally conductive, ceramic members.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein arranging each of the plurality of planar, thermally conductive, ceramic members to form the hollow polygonal structure having the internal space defined by the interior surface of each of the plurality of planar, thermally conductive, ceramic members comprises:
arranging each of the plurality of planar, thermally conductive, ceramic members to form the hollow polygonal structure having the internal space defined by the interior surface of each of the plurality of planar, thermally conductive, ceramic members, each of the plurality of planar, thermally conductive, ceramic members including a planar, thermally conductive, aluminum nitride ceramic member.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein arranging each of the plurality of planar, thermally conductive, ceramic members to form the hollow polygonal structure having the internal space defined by the interior surface of each of the plurality of planar, thermally conductive, ceramic members comprises:
arranging three, planar, thermally conductive, ceramic members to form a hollow triangular structur

Assignees

• Ipg Photonics Corp

Inventors

• Grassi Sergio Walter

Classifications

• H05K7/2039 Primary

  characterised by the heat transfer by conduction from the heat generating element to a dissipating body (arrangements for increasing/decreasing heat-transfer, e.g. fins details, F28F13/00) · CPC title

• H04B10/808

  Electrical power feeding of an optical transmission system · CPC title

• H04B10/29 Primary

  Repeaters · CPC title

• H04B10/25891

  Transmission components (H04B10/40 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H02G15/14 Primary

  specially adapted for submarine cables · CPC title