A SiC based 2-Level Power Converter for Shape-and-Space-Restricted Aerospace Applications

Nasir, U.; Chowdhury, S.; La Rocca, A.; Chen, Y.; Yang, T.; Wheeler, P.; Gerada, C.; Bozhko, S.

Abstract

Recent advancements in the power electronic device technologies, such as wide-band-gap devices including Silicon-Carbide (SiC) and Galium-Nitride (GaN), are acting as an enabling factor in development of compact power electronic systems. More specifically, the concept of More Electric Aircraft (MEA), which requires the aircraft's pneumatic systems to be replaced by electrical systems, can therefore greatly benefit from these emerging technologies in reduction of weight and volume of the aircraft such that range of aircraft can be increased. Various functions of aircraft e.g. actuation and engine-starting in MEAs are performed by power electronic converter based systems. With SiC and GaN devices, converters with densities even up to 70kW/L are easily achievable only when the envelope of the converter is cubical and not restricted. However, in case when a specific envelope is provided by the aircraft manufacturer, the component selection, layout and the design of power electronic converter to achieve high power density, within the restricted envelope, becomes extremely challenging. This paper presents the design of a circular-shaped 17.5kW/L – 97.6% efficient-SiC based two-level (2L) inverter for aircraft applications. Furthermore, the feasibility and design of the converter are supported by the experimental results rated at a power of 13kW.

Citation

Nasir, U., Chowdhury, S., La Rocca, A., Chen, Y., Yang, T., Wheeler, P., …Bozhko, S. (2019). A SiC based 2-Level Power Converter for Shape-and-Space-Restricted Aerospace Applications. In Proceedings on the 2019 IEEE 13th International Conference on Power Electronics and Drive Systems (PEDS) (1-7). https://doi.org/10.1109/PEDS44367.2019.8998907

• Conference Name: 2019 IEEE 13th International Conference on Power Electronics and Drive Systems (PEDS)
• Conference Location: Toulouse, France
• Start Date: Jul 9, 2019
• End Date: Jul 12, 2019
• Acceptance Date: Mar 15, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Feb 17, 2020
• Publication Date: 2019-07
• Deposit Date: Apr 2, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 3, 2019
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Pages: 1-7
• Series ISSN: 2164-5264
• Book Title: Proceedings on the 2019 IEEE 13th International Conference on Power Electronics and Drive Systems (PEDS)
• ISBN: 978-1-5386-6500-8
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/PEDS44367.2019.8998907
• Keywords: Two level SiC converter; Power converter in aicraft; Space-restricted SiC design; SiC gate drive
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1731125
• Publisher URL: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8998907
• Related Public URLs: http://ieee-peds.org/
• Additional Information: © 2020 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.