Ultracompact Symmetrical Medium Voltage DC-DC Converter for Electrified Aircraft

Abstract:
Aircraft technologies are moving towards electrification, with the use of power electronics and energy storage devices such as fuel cells. The required power is achieved by increasing the converter’s output voltage instead of the current, thereby, reducing the copper weight of the converter and the overall transmission system. However, converters with very high voltages also tend to be bigger in size due to higher creepage and clearance distance requirements. Therefore, there is a need for lightweight medium voltage DC-DC converters with high power and medium voltage. Careful consideration should also be made to meet the relevant electrical creepage and clearance requirements for higher altitudes. In this paper, a new concept for a compact medium voltage DC-DC converter with a high power-density for aerospace application is proposed. The symmetric bidirectional buck-boost converter with a novel light-weight mechanical structure and a cascaded controller is discussed and experimentally verified.