Powering Backbone Devices of Large-scale Cabled Seafloor Observatories by Current-to-Voltage DC-DC Converters

Cabled seafloor observatories are powerful tools for oceanography research. The branch units and repeaters are essential devices in the backbone system of the observatories. The power supply of these devices is based on zener diodes in series connection with the backbone cable. However, with the rise of the backbone current, the heat flux of these zener diodes increases rapidly, bringing great threaten to the reliability of the system. A novel current-to-voltage DC-DC converter with closed-loop control is proposed and the prototype is implemented and tested to demonstrate the feasibility of the design.