TY - JOUR

T1 - Potentials and Comparison of Inverter Topologies for Future All-Electric Aircraft Propulsion

AU - Ebersberger, Janine

AU - Hagedorn, Maximilian

AU - Lorenz, Malte

AU - Mertens, Axel

N1 - We would like to acknowledge the funding by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy EXC 2163/1 Sustainable and Energy-Efficient Aviation Project ID 390881007. Recommended for publication by Associate Editor Andrew J. Forsyth

PY - 2022/10/1

Y1 - 2022/10/1

N2 - Decarbonization of the air transport sector is a major challenge for the upcoming years. To achieve this goal, electrification of the propulsion for small to medium civil aircraft is a key enabler for various concepts, ranging from hybrid over fuel cell to full battery powered aircraft. While small electric aircraft for lower altitudes already exist, it is necessary to extend the power range to several megawatts for passenger aircraft flying at medium to high altitudes. Here, the question of the most promising inverter topology and dc supply voltage level is yet to be answered. Challenges include lightweight, high efficiency, and reliability due to cosmic-ray-induced failures. To address this, a broad range of topologies, covering conventional two-level, three-level inverters, and modular multilevel converters (MMCs), are compared in this article. For this purpose, an inverter design methodology is introduced, including chip area optimization, inverter loss, and weight calculation. As a prerequisite, a loss model for high-voltage silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs is derived and used to estimate the characteristics for voltage levels not readily available today. Uncertainty is addressed by covering several scenarios.

AB - Decarbonization of the air transport sector is a major challenge for the upcoming years. To achieve this goal, electrification of the propulsion for small to medium civil aircraft is a key enabler for various concepts, ranging from hybrid over fuel cell to full battery powered aircraft. While small electric aircraft for lower altitudes already exist, it is necessary to extend the power range to several megawatts for passenger aircraft flying at medium to high altitudes. Here, the question of the most promising inverter topology and dc supply voltage level is yet to be answered. Challenges include lightweight, high efficiency, and reliability due to cosmic-ray-induced failures. To address this, a broad range of topologies, covering conventional two-level, three-level inverters, and modular multilevel converters (MMCs), are compared in this article. For this purpose, an inverter design methodology is introduced, including chip area optimization, inverter loss, and weight calculation. As a prerequisite, a loss model for high-voltage silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs is derived and used to estimate the characteristics for voltage levels not readily available today. Uncertainty is addressed by covering several scenarios.

KW - active neutral point clamped (ANPC)

KW - aerospace electronics

KW - aircraft propulsion

KW - all-electric aircraft (AEA)

KW - aviation

KW - dc-ac power converters

KW - high efficiency

KW - inverter design

KW - modular multilevel converters (MMCs)

KW - neutral point clamped (NPC)

KW - power density

KW - power semiconductor devices

KW - silicon carbide (SiC)

KW - three-level

KW - topology, T-type

KW - Two-level

KW - wide bandgap semiconductors

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85123917211&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1109/JESTPE.2022.3164804

DO - 10.1109/JESTPE.2022.3164804

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85123917211

VL - 10

SP - 5264

EP - 5279

JO - IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics

JF - IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics

SN - 2168-6777

IS - 5

ER -