Electrical Systems and Power Electronics for Aircraft

Applications

Summary

Power electronics is a rapidly developing subject. One of the main areas of

advancement is in switched mode power converters. These are basically classified
into classical switched mode and resonant mode. The switched mode has been used
for many years, especially when thyristors and bipolar transistors started to be
developed in 1970s. Many power converters at that time changed from linear mode,
which uses transistors in linear regions to reduce the output voltage, to switched mode
that is in theory low in conduction loss. However, as the higher speeds of switching
devices emerged in mid-1980s, with active research in this area, the resonant
converter started to become popular. The main reason was the market requirement
that the power density of the converter needed to be increased. Resonant converters
offer the advantage of low loss at high switching frequencies. Some of the resonant
converters also offer advantages of reduction in electromagnetic interference -- a
constraint imposed by many international standards for electronic products. During
this time, there were numerous publications on resonant power converters, and many
topologies appeared. The quasi-resonant converter was one of the popular topologies
developed at that time, and it is still heavily used. Other popular topologies are load-
resonant and later many resonant transition topologies were developed.

Switched mode power converters make for a very good subject to study because they
combine with many techniques including control, mathematics, circuit design,
magnetics, materials, device electronics and many others. Prototype circuits can be
built to verify the performance of the design. The cost of development can be small
for some researchers with limited budgets or can be very large for high-power power
conditioning. The applications of power electronics for aircraft applications are ones
of the paramount issues. The course will cover all the topics in using power
electronic converter and inverter for aircraft. It is intended to give readers more
understanding of power converters, inverter, harmonics and high power applications.
It talks about the basic theory, operational equations, general characteristics, and bulk
components. Each circuit or topology will be gone through in detail. It is intended that
readers can also use the course as a reference for aircraft applications.

1
 Introduction

The power converter is one of the non-drive applications of power electronics and the
classical switched mode and resonant converters are two popular circuits in this area.
Usually power levels from a few Watts to Megawatts can be seen in the market.
Sometimes they are also referred to as static converters. The majority of static
applications with the exception of specialized systems are power supply, rectifiers,
DC transmission, battery chargers and Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS).

Recent developments in power converters are mainly in the areas of power factor
correction, harmonic compensation, multiphase power supply, electronic ballast and
battery chargers. Power converters exist in our daily life because they can be found in
nearly all electrical appliances as the power supply unit. Many of the old power
supply systems that originally used transformer rectifier units (TRUs) are now
changed to switched mode power converters. The linear power supply that was very
popular in 1970s is now rarely seen because it has poor efficiency and has also been
replaced by switched mode versions.

The last 20 years of active research in power electronics has brought in many new
topologies of power converters and their associated analytical mathematics. Many
control engineers used power converters as their study in control algorithms and in the
last few years, many researchers have investigated the chaos in power converters.
Applications range from tiny power units for medical purposes placed inside a body,
to large power conditioning systems in aircraft. The output voltage of power supplies
can also be designed to be small or large. For example, the power supply for high
speed microprocessors or CPUs is around 1V while the power supply units for ion-
thrusters, electrostatic precipitators and cathode ray tubes are several to more than 10
kV.

This subject will go through high power applications of switched mode power
converters. The high power converter and multi-level inverter will also be studied. It
will be shown that they are very similar to the classical switched mode power
converters in their operation and electrical characteristics. The resonant converters
including load-resonant converters and resonant transition converters are quite
properly in industrial applications for high power use and will also be included in this
subject.

1.1 The basic electrical circuit

2
Basic the electric circuit consists of the component in inductor, capacitor, transformer
and also a number of switches and control gear. Even a wire, although is a
conductor, that it is also an inductor.

The capacitor has been used for filter and energy storage. Many electrical circuits
also use capacitor as a power factor compensation or harmonic reduction.

The switch is now mainly using semi-conductor power switches. The thyristor or
IGBT will be the key technology for the switches from last to new century.

1.2 Power converter

Power converter is in simply called power supply are the necessary elements for
power conversion in aircraft. DC power conversion are the main application for
power converters and it can be derived to apply in AC-DC and DC-AC power
conversion. A generic block diagram of a power supply is shown in Figure 1.1. Power
is drawn from a variable DC voltage source, a battery or a rectifier. The power passes
through a high frequency converter, which usually contains physically small energy
storage components (such as inductors and capacitors), switching devices (such as
transistors and diodes) and a high frequency transformer to supply energy to the load.

Feedback-control loops monitor the output voltage or current, or some internal circuit
parameters to adjust the operation of the switching devices that maintain the output at
the desired level. Pulse width modulation (PWM), frequency modulation or phase
modulation may be used to control the power devices.

The system would typically be required to maintain the output or current at a certain
level as the input voltage and load vary over specified ranges. The analysis and design
of these systems must therefore be considered with the required operating ranges.

Fig. 1.1 A generic DC-DC power converter

Power supplies, one of the static converters, are usually divided into non-DC isolated
and DC isolated versions. The former is based on simple topologies such as Buck,
Boost, Buck-Boost. The high order circuit (Cuk, Sepic and Zepic ) is usually not used

3
in aircraft power electronics because of the complicated circuit and devices
arrangement. The isolated converter is based on the basic topology but with a
transformer to isolate the input and output. It can also be used to provide certain EMI
isolation and short-circuit protection or current limiting.

1.2 Waveform shaping systems and EMI control systems

In these systems a high frequency switching converter is used to synthesize a required

input/output waveform. Typical applications are:
 Battery energy storage system (BESS)
 Power factor correction rectifiers
 Harmonic compensation

The BESS is actually a switched mode inverter and a converter. It stores excess
energy into the battery and the battery energy is inverted back into sine wave for the
power distribution. The output voltage of the inverter is then filtered to remove the
high switching frequency (carrier frequency) before it is connected to grid.

The power factor correction is to use power converters that control the input current
waveforms such that the input current can be controlled to be sinusoidal and in phase
with the input voltage. Hence the converter will draw unity power factor from the
source. The associated current waveforms are usually low in harmonic contents.

The harmonic compensation is to use an inverter circuit which generates some

harmonics to compensate for any nonlinear load which draws heavily in harmonics.
This type of circuit can also be used to adjust the power factor and provide surge
protection. It can also be used as UPS.

1.3 Fault condition voltage stabilizer

1.3.1 Uninterruptible power supplies

These are complex power electronic systems which would usually consist of several
building blocks:

 A rectifier
 A DC-DC converter for battery charging/discharging
 An inverter for producing the AC output
 A switch for change-over between the main and inverter’s output

A typical block diagram of the UPS is shown in Fig. 1.2. The mains power is rectified
to charge a battery pack which can maintain constant voltage during power outages or
surges. The inverter is to convert from DC into AC sinusoidal voltages. The switch is
to connect the inverter to load. There are many different configurations. One popular
configuration is to connect the load to the inverter output during normal condition and
switch over to mains when the inverter fails to work. The method can reduce
transients during the switching whereas, for the other scheme, the load is normally
connected to mains and is changed over to the inverter output during mains’ failure.

4
 Fig. 1.2 A typical block diagram of UPS.

1.4 High power electronics

Most of the aircraft power electronics are varied from low to high power application.
The converters and inverters used in the areas are using high power design. Besides
high power level of the switching devices and power passive components are used,
the circuits used for high power are different from conventional design. The
following remarks are noted:

a. 2-stage inverter: This the conventional inverter for DC to AC voltage

conversion
b. DC-DC converter: There are a number of DC-DC power converters in an
aircraft for DC conversion. It looks like a transformer for DC.
c. Switching frequency: The switching frequency of such application will be
biased to higher values such as tens of kHz or below. For high power
switching devices, the switching speed is usually lower and therefore the
operation frequency is lower.

1.5 Components used in power electronics

The components used in power electronics are mainly divided into power components
and control electronic components:

1.5.1 Power passive components

Power converters require energy storage components to temporarily store energy and
convert it into another power level. Besides resistor, three types of energy storage
components are commonly used. They are:

 inductors
 capacitors
 transformers

In practice, the component cannot be considered as ideal. The inductor, also known as
coil, if constructed by magnetic materials, will saturate at high current. The
inductance will also decrease as the current through it increases. It also has a
resistance associated with the inductor that behaves as a series resistance. This
resistance is caused by the conduction loss of the winding and the reflected loss from
the core. The series resistance will also appear in a capacitor. This is referred to as
ESR -- the equivalent series resistance. Besides ESR, the equivalent series inductance

5
(ESI) is also important, especially when the circuit is operated at high frequency. For
transformers, there exists a leakage inductance that behaves as a series inductor. This
inductor will cause a spike or overshoot when the switching device turns on and off.
The inductor also reduces the output voltage and is known as overlapping. However,
this inductance can also be utilized as part of the resonant components for resonant
converters, which will be discussed in this book.

The capacitors used in power converters can be summarized as follows:

 Electrolytic capacitor - has high ESR and can only be used for filter purposes. Its
capacitance/volume is high. It is commonly used for filter.

 Ceramic capacitor - is stable and can be used in resonant circuits. However, its
capacitance/volume is low. The improved version, multi-layer ultra-stable
ceramic capacitor, is commonly used for resonant circuits where accuracy is
mandatory. They are used for lower power such as filter of electronic circuit
rather than directly high power uses.

 Polypropylene capacitor - it is commonly used in resonant circuits, and high

frequency filters such as the rectifier stage of the high frequency resonant
converter. Care must be taken because its voltage rating decreases with higher
frequency.

 Polyester capacitor - similar to the Polypropylene capacitor, it can be used for

decoupling.

 Polycarbonate – similar to the Polypropylene capacitor

 Metalised film capacitor – Al, Zn, and Zn alloy metalised film capacitors are
commonly found in the market. They have high insulation resistance. It can be
used for AC and DC applications such as a motor drive. In some cases, the
vaporization on the metal deposit around the fault area following a dielectric
breakdown may give a self-healing capability.

 Mica capacitor - it is expensive and its capacitance/volume is low. It is stable but

nowadays is less commonly used. They are used for lower power such as filter of
electronic circuit rather than directly high power uses.

 Tantalum capacitor – High capacitance/volume but the ESR is usually high,

especially at high frequency. It is commonly used for filter in control electronic
circuit. They are used for lower power such as filter of electronic circuit rather
than directly high power uses.

Table 1.1 shows a list of the popular manufacturers of capacitors

Table 1.1 Popular manufacturers of capacitors

Name Brand ID URL
American Technical Ceramics ATCTM www.atceramics.com/index.html
Atlas Components (ATLAS) SAMSUNGTM www.atlascomponentes.com.br/english/
products.htm

6
AVX Corporation AVXTM www.avxcorp.com
Delcon Capacitors delconTM www.delcon.co.in
EPCOS AG EPCOSTM www.epcos.com/web/produkt_katalog/h
Corporate Communications tml/products_e.html
KEMET Corporation KEMETTM www.kemet.com
Nippon Chemi-con Corporation NIPPON www.chemi-con.co.jp/Welcome_e.html
CHEMI-CONTM
Sterling Components Ltd. STELINGTM www.sterling-comp.co.uk
Taiyo Yuden Co. Ltd. TAIYO TM
www.t-yuden.com/index.cfm
TDK Corporation of America TDKTM www.component.tdk.com/components/c
apacitors.asp
Wilhelm Westermann WIMATM www.wima.de
Capacitors

The inductor or transformer is usually designed and prepared by manufacturers or

researchers because it is difficult to obtain suitable specification from the market. The
inductor and transformer are usually wound with enameled copper wire. For low
output voltage applications, the secondary windings of a transformer may only have
one or two foil turns. Sandwiched winding may also used to reduce the MMF of the
transformer and improve the coupling factor between the winding. The clearance and
creepage between the layers of winding also requires attention. For high frequencies,
Litz wire is used in order to avoid the skin effect and proximity effect of eddy currents
in the winding. The magnetic cores are usually classified into:

 Powder iron - has a high saturation flux density but low permeability. It is
suitable for high frequency inductors. Its saturation flux is as high as 0.9T.

 Ferrites - commonly used for high frequency transformers and inductors. They
have high permeability. If used for inductors, air-gaps will usually be added to
prevent saturation. Their core loss is low. However, the saturation flux density is
low, typically around 0.3 to 0.4T.

 Molydbenum Permalloy Powder (MPP) - also commonly used for high frequency
inductors. Its core loss is low and saturation flux is quite high, at around 0.7T.

Table 1.2 shows some manufacturers of magnetic cores

Table 1.2 Popular manufacturers of magnetic cores

Name Brand ID URL
Allstar Magnetics Inc. AMITM www.allstarmagnetics.com
American Technical Ceramics AT TM www.atceramics.com/index.html
The Arnold Engineering Arnold TM www.grouparnold.com
Company
Dexter Magnetic Materials DexterTM www.dextermag.com
EPCOS AG EPCOSTM www.epcos.com/web/produkt_katalog/
Corporate Communications html/products_e.html
Ferronics Incorporated FERRONICSTM www.ferronics.com
Ferroxcube (Yageo Company) PhilipsTM www.ferroxcube.com/
Mahan Electronics Co. Ltd MAHANTM www.mahan.co.kr

7
Micrometals, Inc. MicrometalsTM www.micrometals.com
Pyroferric International, Inc. PyroferricTM www.tscinternational.com/mainpyro.ht
ml
Dongbu Fine Chemicals Co. Ltd. DONGBUTM www.dongbumpc.com
Taiyo Yuden Co. Ltd. TAIYOTM www.t-yuden.com/index.cfm
TDK Corporation of America TDKTM www.component.tdk.com/components/
magnet.asp
Vacuumschmelze GmbH VACTM www.vacuumschmelze.de/home_vac.n
sf/$frameset/start

For power application, many of them is needed to stand for certain fault current.
During fault condition, there may be a short-current of any path. The path impedance
is needed to stand for the current. Usually thousands of amphere is needed. Choke is
needed to be inserted in certain location for current limiting. The design of the choke
is special as it has to provide low impedance during normal condition and high
impedance during fault condition.

1.5.2 Active switching devices

The energy stored in the passive components is controlled by switching devices. They
are basically classified into active and passive switching devices/components:

 Active switching: Thysistors, Bipolar junction transistors (BJTs), MOSFETs, Gate

turn- off thyristors (GTO), isolated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) and Mos-
controlled thyristors (MCT).

 Passive switching devices (Diode): general purpose, fast-recovery, ultra-fast

recovery, Schottky barriers.

Active switching devices are like a very fast relay. The power devices have evolved
from early 1960s to present, with small power electronics systems usually using
MOSFETs and IGBTs and higher power systems usually using Thyristors, GTOs and
IGBTs. MCTs (Mos-controlled thyristors) are also popular nowadays but are not as
common as IGBTs.

MOSFETs are cheaper than IGBTs for the same power rating. Therefore in many
applications, MOSFETs are more popular. This is especially for large current and
lower voltage application, the conduction loss of MOSFET is lower because they can
be paralleled up into very small on-state resistance. If large die size is used, the on-
state resistance is very low, around a few m. IGBTs are more suitable for high
voltage applications because the on-state voltage is usually a few volts that is small
portion compared to high voltage inputs such as inverter applications which usually
have a DC link voltage of around 600V for industrial drives. The package ranges from
SOT-26/TO-52 for small-power level, TO-220/TO-3 for smaller-medium power level,
SOT-227/module for medium power level, to Stud/capsule for high power. Fig. 1.4
shows the circuit symbol of the above power devices. Table 1.3 shows a list of
manufacturers of power devices and their URLs.

Table 1.3 Popular manufacturers of switching power devices

8
Name Brand symbol URL
Advanced Power Technology APT www.advancedpower.com

Dallas Semiconductor MAX www.maxim-ic.com

Infineon Technologies SPD/SPP/BUZ www.infineon.com/cgi/ecrm.dl
l/ecrm/scripts/prod_cat.jsp?oid
=-8168
International rectifier Limited IRF www.irf.com
Intersil Corporation (Former Harris) RF/BSP rel.intersil.com/docs/lexicon
IXYS incorporated IXFH www.ixys.com
Motorola semiconductor MTP www.onsemi.com/home
ON Semiconductor MTD www.onsemi.com/home
Philips Electronic PHP www.semiconductors.philips.c
om
Philips Semiconductor BUK/PHP www-
us.semiconductors.philips.com/
pip/UZZ9000
ST Microelectronic ST eu.st.com/stonline/prodpres/dis
crete/powmosft/powmosft.htm
Toshiba Semiconductor SK www.semicon.toshiba.co.jp/en
g/index.html
Vishay Intertechnology, Incorporated SI www.siliconix.com

Fig. 1.4 Circuit symbols of popular active power devices

Brief discussion of six popular devices:

1) Thyristor (SCR)
This is also called a Silicon Controlled Rectifier and is an old device developed in the
1960s. It is a very high power but slow device with voltage and current ratings up to
several thousands of volts and amperes respectively. Turning off usually requires
forced commutation. The switching frequency is around 1kHz as maximum. Its turn-
on and turn-off times are long, at around 10s or higher. The on-state voltage is low,
typically around 2V, and its main advantage is that it is very robust. Some other
thyristors such as static induction (SI) thyristors can now perform at much higher
speeds.

2) Bipolar junction transistor (BJT)

9
This is a very mature device and low in on-state voltage and hence low loss, but it is
relatively low in speed. The typical switching frequency is 5kHz with turn-on time of
around 1s. The device was popular 20 years ago and it is now rarely found in the
market. This device is now being phased out in the power electronics industry. The
on-state voltage is around 2V and the driving circuit is a simple base current-drive.

3) Power Metal Oxide Silicon Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET)

This is still a very popular device for high frequency operation and is usually used for
resonant converters. It has high switching speed and can be used in the MHz region.
The turn-on and turn-off times are around 10-100ns. Because the on-state situation
behaves as low-resistance, it can be used for very high current and low voltage
applications. A typical application is called a synchronous rectifier, in which the
MOSFET is used to replace a diode in the rectification because a very low on-state
resistance Rdc(on) can be used. When the device is turned on, it gives bi-directional
power flow. The driving circuit is a voltage signal of around 12V-18V. The rated
voltage of the gate-source is usually 20V. The device has an inherent body diode
which is connected in an anti-parallel direction. However, the body diode is quite
slow and is not compatible with the MOSFET’s speed. Recently there have been
techniques developed to improve the body diode’s switching, called FREDFET [4].

4) Gate turn-off thyristor (GTO)

This is a popular device and it is used for very high power applications [4]. It is to
replace the thyristor because it can be turned off by gate-control. Power ratings of
thousands of amperes and volts are very common. The switching frequency is slightly
higher than the thyristor at around 2kHz. The turn-on and turn-off times are around 1-
2s. One of the disadvantages of the device is that the turn-off current is large and
depends on the device’s conducting current which is typically 1/5 of the device’s
conducting current. The on-state voltage is around 2-3V.

5) Insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT)

This is a combination of the BJT and the MOSFET [5] and has a fairly high speed and
low on-state voltage. The switching frequency is up to 50kHz. Nowadays up to
100kHz can also be found but with the sacrifice of a conduction loss. It is usually for
applications of high voltage and high power. It is commonly used for high voltage
drive systems and the on-state voltage is around 1.5-3V. The 3rd generation IGBT has
turn-on and -off times around 100ns whereas old generation IGBT’s turn-on or turn-
off is around 1s. The tail current that exists in the old generation device is rarely
found in the 3rd generation version. The driving circuit is the same as the power
MOSFET.

Anyway, the speed of the switching devices is the factor to drive new and advanced
technology or vice versa. Nowadays uses of Silicon Carbide (SiC) and gallium
arsenide (GaAs) for improvement in switching devices are reported. Applications in
IGBTs, MOSFETs and thyristors are found [6-9].

6) Mos-controlled thyristor (MCT)

As the name suggests, this is basically a thyristor with a MOSFET controlled gate.
The MCT has a high rate of rising current, di/dt, of around 1000A/s and a high rate
of rising voltage, dv/dt, of around 5000V/s and has a turn-off time, toff, of around
1.5s. Its on-state voltage is low, around 0.7-1.5V which implies low conduction loss.

10
Nowadays, thousands of ampere and volt are widely available. Its switching speed is
quite close to the IGBT. It seems today that the IGBT has a better market share than
the MCT. The gate drive is similar to that of the power MOSFET. The P-channel-
MCT is widely used for research and electronics companies.

1.5.3 Passive switching devices

The only passive device is the power diode. The power diode is a very important
device in power electronics and drives. It exists in nearly all circuits. Two typical
characteristics of diodes are forward and reverse recoveries. This reduces the
switching speed and the recovery time when the device switches from off-to-on state
and off-to-on state respectively. It also produces an overshoot voltage that affects the
voltage rating of the device. Forward recovery is significant for very high power
diodes such as in traction applications whereas reverse recovery appears in most
diodes. Recovery becomes more serious as the temperature, forward current, rate of
change of current or reverse voltage increases. In general applications, reverse
recovery concerns the users much more. Reverse recovery time, trr , is one of the
important parameters to specify the switching speed. There are three basic types of
diodes:

 General purpose diodes – for rectifying and low frequency operation. Reverse
recovery time trr is large, typically 25s. Power ratings up to thousands of volts
and amperes are also common.

 Fast recovery diodes – for high frequency operation. Its trr can be as low as 1s or
a few hundred ns. Ultra-fast recovery diode is a commercial name to specify very
high frequency operations such as high frequency resonant converters and its t rr is
around tens of ns. It also has high peak inverse voltage (PIV), low junction
capacitance and can operate under higher temperatures. PiN (P+-I-N) and Epitaxial
diode are typical fast recovery diodes. FRED is a fast recovery epitaxial diode that
is also popular in the market.

 Schottky barrier diodes – its forward voltage drop is small and depends on
devices’ voltage and current ratings. On-state voltage from 0.2V to 1.5V is
common. Because of the low voltage rating, it is recommended to reduce the on-
state voltage drop, especially for low voltage systems. However, its reverse
voltage rating is usually less than 100V. Nowadays, 150V and 200V Schottky
diodes can also be found in the market but the on-state voltage is higher as the
voltage rating increases. Another advantage of this diode is that reverse recovery
is negligible.

Recent technology has been using Silicon Carbide (SiC), PiN and GaAs or some
combined methods to improve the switching characteristics [10-11]. Some other
combined technologies in diodes are merged PiN Schottky (MPS), self-adapting P-
emitter diode (SPEED) and static shielding Diode (SSD), as reported recently [12-13].
There are two other characteristics of diodes that also need to be understood. During
reverse bias, a diode behaves as a capacitor. This junction capacitance may cause
parasitic oscillations. However, in the high frequency resonant conversion technique,
this capacitance can be utilized as part of a resonant component. The junction

11
capacitance decreases with the reverse bias voltage increasing. Also during reverse
bias, a small leakage current in the order of A to mA flows. The leakage current of a
diode increases as the junction temperature increases. It approximately doubles for
every 10oC rise in temperature.

There is another important device called the Zener diode that gives a constant voltage
under reverse bias. Zener diodes are commonly used in gate-drive protection circuits
because the gate-source voltage usually has a voltage rating of 20V. Fig. 1.4 shows a
typical MOSFET gate drive circuit with isolation. This circuit is especially useful for
MOSFET working with a floating voltage. The waveforms at each point of the circuit
are shown. It can be seen that the capacitor Cp is to remove the DC level of the gate
signal so that the transformer does not saturate. Cs and Dz recover the negative voltage
received at vs. Another Zener diode can also be connected in anti-series with Dz so
that the protection in reverse direction can be formed, and also a fixed negative
voltage can be used to turn-off the MOSFET instead of using zero voltage.

1.5.4 Loss in switching devices

The losses in transistors and diodes are mainly conduction loss and switching loss.
The switching loss is difficult to formulate because each device is different and may
behave differently in different circuits. Although there are many equations for
switching loss published, their accuracy is being challenged. On the other hand, the
conduction loss can easily be formulated. Table 1.4 shows the method to calculate the
conduction loss of switching devices. In the table Von and Ion represent the on-state
voltage and current. Each device when turned off will behave as open-circuited. Of
course, the loss during off-state is virtually zero. However, the device behaves as a
capacitor during off-state. This is called the junction capacitor. The charge stored in
the junction capacitor will be dissipated internally in the device if no soft-switching is
used. The loss involved can be formulated as:
1 (1.1)
PJunct  C jV j 2 f s
2
where Cj and Vj are denoted as the junction capacitance and off-state voltage. The
basic loss is the conduction loss:

Pcond  Von I on (1.2)

12
 Table 1.4 Conduction loss in switching devices
SCR BJT MOSFET GTO IGBT Diode
On-state Voltage Voltage Resistance Voltage Voltage Voltage
condition
Loss equation VonIon VonIon Ion2Rds(on) VonIon VonIon VonIon

Thermal management is also an important area of study in power converters. The

thermal equation for the calculating the size of heat sink during steady-state is
commonly known as:
T  T j  Ta  Ploss ( R j c  Rch  Rha ) (1.3)
where Tj is the junction temperature, Ta is the ambient temperature, Ploss is the power
loss, Rj-c is the thermal resistance from junction to case, Rc-h is the thermal resistance
of case to heatsink, and Rh-a is the thermal resistance of heatsink to ambient. When the
thermal resistance from case to ambient Rc-a sometimes cannot be negligible, a
parallel combination of the Rc-a with Rc-h+Rh-a is used. Rh-a governs the size of the heat
sink. Therefore the loss in the power converter not only affects the efficiency but also
increases the size of the heat management subsystem that will make the size and
weight of the converters increase.

1.5.5 Control electronics

Control electronics is to control the switching pattern of switching devices. They are
the brain of the power converter and are made from analogue, digital or mix-mode
electronics. A number of IC manufacturers (e.g. Unitrode, Maxim) have produced
many PWM control ICs for power supplies. In larger systems, the power converters
are usually controlled by microprocessors or DSPs. Table 1.5 shows a list of the
companies and their URLs.

Table 1.5 Popular manufacturers of controller ICs for power converters

Name Brand symbol URL
Analog Devices, Incorporated AD products.analog.com/products_ht
ml/list_gen_category_tree.html
Burr-Brown Products(Texas Instruments) DCP www.burr-brown.com
Dallas Semiconductor DS www.maxim-ic.com
Elantec EL www.elantec.com
Fairchild Semiconductor ACE www.fairchildsemi.com
Intersil EL rel.intersil.com/docs/lexicon
Linear Technology LT www.linear.com
Maxim MAX www.maxim-ic.com
Micrel Semiconductor, Incorporated MIC www.micrel.com/index.shtml
Micro Linear LM www.microlinear.com/publication
s.htm
Motorola MC www.onsemi.com/home
National Semiconductor Corporation IR www.national.com
NEC Electron Devices (NEC uPC www.ic.nec.co.jp
Coorporation)
ON Semiconductor N www.onsemi.com/home
Philips Semiconductors H www.semiconductors.philips.com
Samgsung Electronic company, Limited S3 www.samsungelectronics.com/se

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 miconductors
ST Microelectronic L eu.st.com
System General Corporation SG www.sg.com
TelCom Semiconductor, Incorporated MH www.chipdocs.com/manufacturer
s/TCOM.html
Texas Instrument TI www.ti.com
Unitrode UC www.unitrode.com

1.6 Why power electronics

Power converters have become one of the most rapidly developing technologies over
the last three decades. This is because of fast development in power semiconductors
that enable new ways of managing power conditioning. They are also being used in
many motion controls, power distributions and transmissions. The definition of power
electronics is to use electronics to process the energy rather than to use electronics to
control high power. We should not use the voltage and current ratings to distinguish if
the system is power electronics or not.

Applications include industrial, commercial, residential, medical, aerospace and space

uses. Power electronics will be more important as environmental protection issues
gain importance. The use of power electronics gives a better mechanism for power
processing and improves efficiency. DC voltage sources can now be found in many
alternative energy systems such as fuel cells, solar photovoltaic panels and batteries.
Power converters are among the best methods for DC power converters.

1.7 How the high frequency affects the old design

Because the power electronics system is working high frequency, there are many
considerations we need to make fit the new change in our daily life and existing
design. The MCCB, MCB, RCD, connector, fuse or busebar that are originally used
for protection at 50-60Hz is now required re-designed for high frequency application
otherwise they will be overheated or tripped unnecessary. The high frequency IGBT
is now replacing many thyristor for aircraft application. The copper loss and
magnetic core loss will also increase because of the eddy current. In some case,
overrated the components may be needed. The high frequency also causes the
emission of EMI. Therefore the international standards such as IEC61000 is one of
the measure to restrict the emission and THD, and reduce the harmonic interference to
other systems.

1.8 Power electronics aircraft applications

Catalogory Applications Techniques/Circuits

Energy storage Battery safety Battery management system: flyback converter
Battery charger Power factor correction, rectifier, DC-DC converter
Motion control Actuation Motor design, motor driver
Fuel pump Electric pump, motor drive, inverter
Motion control Inverter, vector control, torque control
Landing gear Motor design, motor driver
Environment Ventilation Inverter
Lift Motor, Inverter

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services Lighting Electronic ballast, LED
UPS Inverter, battery charger
VAR compensator Chopper
Power factor correction Switching capacitor
Solar Photovoltaic Battery charger, grid-connected inverter
panel
Aerospace Propulsion Inverter
power AC generation 2-level inverter, Series-Resonant converter, phase-
shifted converter
distribution
VFCF Inverter, power factor corrected rectifier

1.9 References

[1.1] B.W. Williams, “Power Electronics: Devices, Drivers and Applications”,

MacMillian.,TK7871.85. Part 1, pp 1-85

[1.2] C.W. Lander, “Power Electronics”, McGraw-Hill, TK7871.85, pp. 1-30.

[1.3] N. Mohan, “Power Electronics: Converters, Applications and Design”, John Wiley &
Sons, Inc., TK7881.15.M64, ISBN 0-471-30576-6. (Chapter 7, 8, 9, 17)

[1.4] R.J. Bassett, S.R. Jones, P.D. Taylor, “The practical application limits of very high
power GTOs and very high power bipolar transistors”, Third International Conference
on Power Electronics and Variable-Speed Drives, 1988, pp: 95 –98.

[1.5] H. Yilmaz, K. Owyang, M.F. Chang, J.L. Benjamin, W.R. Van Dell, “Recent
advances in insulated gate bipolar transistor technology”, IEEE Transactions on
Industry Applications, Vol 26(5) , Sept.-Oct. 1990, pp.831 –834.

[1.6] R.C. Singh, J.A. Copper, M.R. Melloch, T.P. Chow, J.W. Palmour, “SiC power
Schottky and PiN diodes”, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, vol. 49(4), April
2002, pp. 665-672.

[1.7] J.W. Palmour, R. Singh, R.C. Glass, O. Kordina, O.; C.H. Carter, “Silicon carbide for
power devices” IEEE International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices and
IC's, ISPSD, 1997, pp. 25 –32.

[1.8] T. Burke, K. Xie, J.R. Flemish, H. Singh, J. Carter, J.H. Zhao, W.R. Buchwald, G.
Lorenzo, “Silicon carbide thyristors for power applications “,Tenth IEEE
International Pulsed Power Conference, Vol. 1 , 1995, pp. 327 –335.

[1.9] R. Frank, “A performance update for production power processes”, Applied Power
Electronics Conference and Exposition, 1997, vol. 1, pp. 10 –16.

[1.10] G.J. Campisi, “The status and future of silicon carbide”, IEEE/PES Transmission and
Distribution Conference and Exposition, vol. 2, 2001, pp. 1194 –1198.

[1.11] P. Hadizad, A. Salih, J. Shumate, J. Ommen, “High voltage GaAs rectifiers for
advanced power conditioning applications”, Thirteenth Annual Applied Power
Electronics Conference and Exposition, Vol. 2, 1998, pp. 719 –723.

[1.12] M. Mehrotra, B.J. Baliga, “Comparison of high voltage rectifier structures”,

International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs, ISPSD, 1993,
pp. 199-204.

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[1.13] S.Sawant, B.J.Baliga, “A Comparative study of high voltage (4kV) power rectifiers
PiN/MPS/SSD/SPEED”, International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices
and Ics, ISPSD, 1999, pp. 153-156.

[1.14] PSPICE -Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis, Cadence Design
Systems, Inc.. http://www.orcad.com/products/cddemo4_f.htm (Previously owned by
Microsim Corp, OrCAD, Inc)

[1.15] Saber – a CAD or circuit simulation package, Synopsys, Inc. (previously

owned by Analogy Corp., Avanti Corp.)
http://www.synopsys.com/products/avmrg/saber_cosim_d
s.html

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