This paper proposes a new generation SiC MOSFET based avionic power supply. Efficient use of energy and materials and a drastic reduction of greenhouse emissions and noise footprints are the key motivations behind the more electric aircraft. In one of such aircraft electrical systems, the main DC bus is generally kept at 270V and many critical and bidirectional loads require 28V input. Hence, an efficient bidirectional DC-DC converter is required for this purpose. Dual active bridge with HF transformer isolation is one of the best choices for such applications. Another important aspect in avionic systems is to reduce the size and weight of the system. By increasing the DC-DC converter operating frequency the size of the magnetic components can be reduced. However, this is achieved with the increased switching losses and associated cooling requirements. The recent advancements in SiC device technology have helped to improve the switching performance and allowed the operation at higher temperature without degradation of its performance. Simulation and experimental evaluations of 1kW labprototype are presented.

Functional and performance tests of a three-phase, two-level power module based on CREE 1.2kV SiC MOSFETs for avionic applications is presented in this paper. SiC devices have superior properties over conventional Si devices at high voltage operations and these properties make SiC devices attractive for avionic industry in order to reduce size of power electronic converters while maintaining high efficiency. This paper starts with a brief explanation of thermo-mechanical design approach of SiC power module. Thermo-mechanical design is followed by test setup and experimental results for different load and switching frequency conditions. The module is tested up to 540V DC link voltage, 6kW output power with 100kHz switching frequency. Experimental results show that the module can be successfully operated with high efficiency at high switching frequencies.

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