Magnetics Business & Technology - November/December 2022 - 20

PRODUCT NEWS
Navy Aircraft Carriers Increase Use of
Electromagnetic Launch System
continue to perform successfully in operational, carrier qualification,
and training environments and under all weather conditions, "
said Forney.
For more info, see www.ga.com.
Dramatically Thinner Pattern Coils from TDK
Could Revolutionize Wireless Charging
10,000 " cats and traps " completed onboard USS Gerald R. Ford.
Photo courtesy US Navy.
General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems has been awarded a
contract by US Naval Air Systems Command to continue development
and evaluation of tailored configurations of the Electromagnetic
Aircraft Launch System and Advanced Arresting Gear as
a potential foreign military sale to the French Navy for their next
generation aircraft carrier, Porte-Avions Nouvelle Génération.
" We are proud to be supporting the ongoing efforts between our
nations to realize the potential of integrating EMALS and AAG
onboard the future flagship of the French Marine Nationale, "
said Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS. " For decades, France's
Charles de Gaulle and U.S. Nimitz-class carriers have provided
interoperable capabilities to conduct joint operations and launch
and recover aircraft on each other's ships. EMALS and AAG
onboard next generation French and U.S. aircraft carriers will
provide increased interoperability between our navies and greater
flexibility to launch a wider range of current and future aircraft for
the decades to come. "
GA-EMS will continue evaluating optimal EMALS and AAG
configurations for performance and document ship interfaces and
impacts on the French vessel. The contract will culminate in 2023
with a system requirements review and an evaluation of French
suppliers for potential component manufacturing in France. Under
previous contract awards over the past two years, GA-EMS participated
in carrier studies to investigate the feasibility of implementing
EMALS and AAG for the future French carrier design
The first-in-class USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) recently completed
its 10,000th successful catapult launch and arrested landing,
dubbed " cats and traps " , using EMALS and AAG. GA-EMS is
currently under contract with the Navy to support CVN 78 sustainment
requirements and is delivering EMALS and AAG for the next
two Ford-class carriers currently under construction, John F. Kennedy
(CVN 79) and Enterprise (CVN 80). GA-EMS is also working
with the Navy to determine the EMALS and AAG contract and
schedule requirements for the fourth Ford-class aircraft carrier,
Doris Miller (CVN 81).
" Over the past two years, EMALS and AAG have been rigorously
exercised utilizing aircraft in the current air wing. The systems
Linking new plating technology with its core competency in magnetic
materials, TDK has developed a novel thin pattern coil that
could revolutionize wireless charging of mobile devices. The new
approach applies the magnetic material in a copper pattern on
a thin film instead of the traditional process using winding wires,
achieving a five-fold reduction in thickness. Mass production
began in May and the company has already begun construction of
a new plant in Japan to rapidly scale up further development and
manufacturing.
The coil was developed without employing conventional lithographic
exposure and etching techniques. Instead, TDK's gamechanging
process technology was leveraged, in combination with
plating technology using nano-dispersion of the organic compound
polypyrrole, developed by Achilles Corporation, a Japanese
plastics processing manufacturer.
Although wireless charging coils have generally been produced
by winding wires, this new approach has made it possible to
manufacture them using a thick copper pattern on a thin film. This,
along with the application of TDK's proprietary magnetic materials
has enabled coil thickness reduction down to 0.76 mm which
is approximately one-fifth of the thickness of traditional 3.8 mm
diameter wound wire coils.
The use of TDK's original optimal coil shape pattern means that
the new coils cover a larger charging area, resulting in greater
user convenience. Additionally, while it was previously necessary
for three coils to be incorporated into wireless charging systems,
now only one coil will be required, thereby enabling system miniaturization.
Separately,
TDK has announced that it is building a new highly
20 Magnetics Business & Technology * November/December 2022
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Magnetics Business & Technology - November/December 2022

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