More Electric Aircraft Forum

Synergies in Power Electronics between Aerospace and Industry/Automotive Applications

Kai Kriegel; Ashot Melkonyan

Siemens AG, Corporate Technology

Marcelo Iturriz; Olivier Tachon

Airbus France S.A.S.
Copyright 2009 MOET Project Consortium ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

ABSTRACT Since several years, the aircrafts demand has been raised to support the passengers traffic growth and the fleet renewal: several hundred of deliveries illustrate this trend. The A380 was the first aircraft (A/C) using more power electronics technology and with the perspectives of more electrical aircraft, the power electronics utilisation will be unavoidable. This paper presents the specific requirements on power electronics for A/C applications and compares these requirements with industrial and automotive applications. INTRODUCTION On current aircrafts hydraulic, pneumatic and electrical powers are available and according to the more electrical concept the electrical power

demand could be increased drastically involving new electrical architecture. Power electronics will support new architecture needs and enable system changes from mechanical, or hydraulic to more electrical solutions to reach the objectives defined at aircraft level like cost saving, weight reduction etc. Potential power electronics applications for A/C are: motor drives for flight control actuators electrical starter generator environmental cooling system power conversion converter) (e.g. DC/DC, DC/AC

where the main requirements are on the one hand high levels of safety, reliability and

The MOET Project Steering Committee has approved this paper for publication. The author is solely responsible for the content of the paper. The MOET project, coordinated by Airbus France, is co-funded by the European Commission within the Sixth Framework Programme

http://www.moetproject.eu

availability, on the other hand weight and maintenance cost reduction. REQUIREMENTS To design a power electronics system for A/C, industrial or automotive applications, the following data are required: Mission profile, Environmental conditions, Other boundary conditions.

Table 1 presents the temperature range and mechanical loads.

Cabin Temperatur e range Vibration -40C 85C <5g Engine Compartment -40C 105C 5-30g Engine -40C 125C ~30g Transmissio n -40C 150C ~30g

Table 1: Automotive environmental conditions [1]

The mission profile covers environmental cycling (lied to system location) and power cycling (lied to the application). AUTOMOTIVE REQUIREMENTS For automotive application, many different electronic systems (Figure 1) are embedded:

Due to the high ambient temperatures and the limited space for power electronics systems, e.g. electric motors, traction inverters and DC/DC converter, the liquid cooling is often used and corresponds to a mixture of 50% water and 50% ethylene-glycol, inflammable with additives for corrosion inhibition. During transients, the coolant can reach 125 for ICE application. Up to now (e.g. Toyota) electronics systems had a separate cooling circuit. In order to reduce costs and volume a combined cooling circuit would be foreseen based on that, the power electronics must operate at elevated temperatures. Today the lifetime requirements in automotive domain are [1]: 15 years, 10,000 operating hours, 300,000 km.

Figure 1: Different electronic systems in a car [1]

Small power systems ECU in EV or HEV electric traction systems

To reach these objectives, new methodologies like robustness validation, which are based on mission profiles, are essential. They are based on various relevant individual mission profiles. A typical mission profile for automotive is shown in Figure 2

with a voltage range between 12V and about 800V, and a current range from a few Amps up to several hundreds Amps. The environmental conditions depend strongly on the location of the equipment. In automotive application, four main areas are identified: the cabin or body electronics, the engine compartment, the engine (attached) and the transmission.

Figure 2: Automotive motorway mission profile from the Artemis project [7]

Cost is a major driver for automotive due to mass-market product and the cost will be a contributor for technology success. The target costs for an electrical drive for an HEV are

Copyright 2009 MOET Project Consortium ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Page 2 of 8

estimated to be $7.9/kW in 2010, $5 in 2015, $3.3 in 2020 according to the Freedom Car project [3]. These costs represent a tenth of industrial drives

For railway applications, the voltage and the power ranges are similar to the industrial applications. (100kVA to 2MVA). However, because of high power densities, a liquid cooling is mainly used instead of air-cooling. The coolant is similar to automotive domain (mix ethyleneglycol / water), but due to the lower operating temperature equal to -55C, the mix ratio is 60/40. The maximum ambient temperature is 85C. The requirements on the lifetime are: 20 years (up to 30 years for specific applications) 73,000h for 10h operation per day MTBF: 150,000h [4].

Figure 3: Cost targets from Freedom Car [3]

As shown in Figure 3, the cost development tendency does not have enough degradation of the learning curve. This implies that technological breakthrough is necessary and Silicon Carbide semiconductor could be one of candidate technologies. This technology, based on extremely rugged and stable material, enables a better thermal management, very high blocking voltages, and very high switching speeds. Using devices based on SiC in the future will enable higher power densities in power electronics applications.

Mission profile approach is already used for railways applications and describes the speed, the torque, and the motor current versus altitude profile.

INDUSTRY / RAILWAY REQUIREMENTS The industrial sector and the railway applications are the main consumers of power electronics today. In order to increase the efficiency of industrial drives, more and more variable speed motor drives have been developed using mostly air cooling and supplied by a large voltage range (650V up to several kV) . For industrial requirement is: applications, the lifetime
Figure 4: Mission profile for a railway application [4]

In Figure 4 a mission profile for a railway application is shown. AEROSPACE REQUIREMENTS In aerospace applications safety is one of main requirements among reliability, cost, weight as well as high integration parameters. The power electronics systems shall be designed to meet all of them. If we compare these requirements with those of other areas, the main difference for aerospace

40,000h in 5 years at full loads [5].

Copyright 2009 MOET Project Consortium ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Page 3 of 8

application is associated to A/C environment due to the fact that an aircraft operates both on ground and in the atmosphere. The following figure presents the altitude variation versus time of an A320 Airbus for the different phases: Taxi-out, take-off, climb, and cruise.

Figure 5: A320 Flight mission profile

Figure 6: Pfotzner curve on cosmic radiation vs. altitude [2]

Aircraft systems are designed to meet performance requirements in a temperature envelope depending on system location: pressurized or not pressurized area. The temperature range is 55C / +85C.

On current A/C, the electrical systems are supplied by AC voltage 115 VAC in normal operations (up to 180 VAC for abnormal transients). In the future, with the more electrical concept, a DC network will be distributed. The nominal DC voltage will be 540V with voltage transient greater than 800V. The reliability requirements for power electronics systems in aerospace applications are [6]: 24 years, 60,000 cycles, 100,000 h flight operation,

Due to the high altitude operation, the A/C is operated at low pressure and is exposed to cosmic radiation with an intensity depending to the altitude as presented in Figure 6 (Pfotzner curve).

Consequently, for a power module, the required MTBF shall be higher than 1,000,000 h. According to the increase of power electronics in the future A/C programs, liquid cooling is foreseen to manage thermal losses. This involves new issues in aerospace domain. Fluorinated liquids (e.g. Galden) and WaterEthylene-Glycol coolants are studied and compared based on their physical properties (thermal performance, corrosive reactions, weight etc.) But additionally economic aspects must be considered.

Copyright 2009 MOET Project Consortium ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Page 4 of 8

SYNERGIES The synergies between automotive and aerospace are the most valuable ones. The experience in mass production and in the cost efficient design of the automotive industry is very important. The environmental conditions are partly tougher in the automotive sector. This provides a safety and reliability margin to the aerospace applications. For the automotive sector the safety regulation in the aerospace sector can be beneficial. There are obviously many technological options for cooperation. Due to similar voltage and power ranges some systems can be developed using the same technologies. However, between the industrial and the aerospace sectors the synergies are limited. Industrial systems can be used for demonstrators because these systems are not as proprietary as specific automotive solutions. The relatively low power density of industrial power electronics systems does not allow an application in an aircraft. The long experience in the railway sector can be used in order to design long-life power electronics components. Additionally, the test procedures for ensuring the reliability for a long time can be very helpful. The next figure shows the different categories in which synergies can be achieved. The importance is estimation respective to typical applications.
Power density Production scale Mission Profiles Safety Operability Reliability Rated Power Costs per Power Cost Sensitiveness Cooling Environment System Integration

overlap between automotive and aerospace is high in technological aspects, whereas between aerospace and railway it is high in reliability and safety issues.

EIPM FOR AN AIRCRAFT FAULT-TOLERANT CONVERTER For More Electrical Aircraft applications, power converters are being largely widespread making power electronics indispensable for improving performance, reliability and competitiveness. The utilization of modular generic converters is a way to contribute to the design of new electrical architectures. This modularity of conversion blocks allows power segmentation and redundancy, increasing at the same time systems availability. For the experimental studies, EIPM modules were designed to build a reconfigurable inverter that is dedicated to drive a permanent magnet synchronous motor drive. Linked to the neutral point of the wye-connected motor, this inverter has a fourth leg that ensures a mutualized redundancy (Figure 8).This hardware mockup is realized in the frame of MOET project. Simultaneously the advantage of the SiC devices are also tested and characterized by means of integration of SiC SBDs. This mixed technology based on SiC and Si devices helps to achieve better power densities for power converters.

Automotive Aerospace Industry / Railway

Figure 7: Estimated Synergies between the different applications

From Figure 7, can be seen, that there is no total overlap of two application fields. In contrast, the
Copyright 2009 MOET Project Consortium ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Page 5 of 8

power reconfiguration is following also by a new control operation mode. Turn-off signals involving control of 4-quadrant switches are generated by the logic stage of EIPM. At a first time, a leg failure detection turns off the corresponding switch and turns on the 4th leg switch. The bidirectional switch (two symmetrical thyristors anti-parallel connected) withstands as much as 900mJ of avalanche energy. This excellent avalanche capability helps to ensure a "rugged" fail-safe operation of the system during abnormal avalanche-mode conditions that affect fault-tolerant converter during isolation switch turn-on. The inverter mock-up has following features:
Figure 8: The test-setup electrical circuit converter of the Enhanced Intelligent Power Module (EIPM)

Galvanic isolated control logic block

AC Motor

Output Power: 12KW (18Arms / Phase) IGBT: VCE= 1200V / Ic= 50A with SiC SBD freewheeling diodes Switching frequency: 12 kHz External DC bus: 540V External current sensors +15Vdc auxiliary power supply 5V CMOS compatible inputs Integrated sensing of the switch voltage, switch current and the DC-bus voltage. Short circuit protection; over current protection (soft over current shut down); overvoltage protection; power supply protection (under voltage). shoot-through protection of the transistors Galvanic insulation, (5 kV during 1 min) UL1577; dv/dt immunity: CMR>25kV/us

Moreover, galvanic isolated control inputs and fault recognition feedback signals as well as DC bus voltage information are provided to the uC unit.

Figure 9: The hardware mock-up of the fault tolerant inverter

During normal operation 4-quadrant switches (respectively connected to 3 principal legs) are ON (phase current flows trough them). In case of abnormal operation (leg failure), its switch is turned off and supports differential voltage between motor and DC Bus. In compensation, the switch linked to 4th leg is turned on. This

The chips in the module are soldered with high temperature solders on the DCB (PbSn5Ag2,5 330C). For rapid prototyping the DCB is mounted on a standard base-plate and in order to ensure the correct alignment of this baseplate, an open water-cooling approach is used.

Copyright 2009 MOET Project Consortium ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Page 6 of 8

All Si IGBTs, Thyristors and SiC Schottky Barrier Diodes (SBD) are bonded with wire bonds.

Si ultrafast diode
Total loss distribution [%]

39,0%

33,3%

12,8%

1,8%

13,1%

Pcond. (Vce/Vd)

Pfilter (DC+AC)

Psense

Pthy

Psw.

b)
SiC SBD

Figure 10: The power module with Si IGBTs and SiC freewheeling diodes and with Si-Thyristor isolation bidirectional switch

Total loss distribution [%]

12,9% 33,3%

MEASUREMENT RESULTS
26,1%

From the switching waveforms of the phase leg and the comparison diagrams of the total loss distribution it can be seen, that thanks to SiC diodes more than 65% of the switching losses can be saved. This losses reduction opens a way to increase efficiency and to improve compacness of power converters for A/C applications.
Switching ON Losses
600 UdsHS Id HS 500 Eon E ON [uJ] 25 30

12,8%

1,8%

13,1%

Pcond. (Vce/Vd)

Pfilter (DC+AC)

Psense

Pthy

Psw-save

Psw.

c)
Figure 11: a) The switching waveforms of the phase leg with SiC SBD b)& c) distribution of losses

CONCLUSION
Id [A]; E(ON)[uJ]

400 Uds [V] Vds 300 Id 200

sw _ sp

20

15

Between the automotive and the aerospace industry there are some options for a cooperation Relatively high amount of pieces Similar power and voltage levels Compact and efficient design Liquid cooling Similar applications

10

100

sw _ st

Eon

= 503 uJ

0 Time [s]

5,00E-08 1,00E-07 1,50E-07 2,00E-07 2,50E-07 3,00E-07 3,50E-07 4,00E-07 4,50E-07 5,00E-07

a)

The synergies with the industrial as well as railway sector are limited. The industrial systems can be used for functional demonstrators and the experience in the railway sector of a reliable design can be reused.
Copyright 2009 MOET Project Consortium ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Page 7 of 8

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Mr. Pauly from the Siemens Industry sector for the fruitful discussions. The MOET project is a European Project, cofunded by the European Commission within the Sixth Framework Program. REFERENCES List your references in order of appearance. 1. Wondrak, W.: General Requirements on Quality and Reliability from the View of an OEM, ECPE HOPE Syposium, Sindelfingen, Germany, 2008 2. Slkner G. et al.: Reliability of SiC power devices against cosmic radiation-induced failure. 6th European Conference on Silicon Carbide and related materials ECSCR06, Newcastle upon Tyne, Great Britain, 2006 3. Laura Marlino, Power Electronics and Electric Motor Research at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, APE09, Paris, France, 2009 4. Mermet-Guyennet, M.: Reliability requirements for traction power converters, ECPE Workshop Built-in Reliability into Power Electronics Systems, Toulouse, France, 2008 5. Pauly, D.: Impact of Automotive Power Electronics on Industrial Applications Synergies and Competition, ECPE HOPE Syposium, Sindelfingen, Germany, 2008 6. MOET documents concerning the EIPM for a fault-tolerant inverter. 7. Coquery, G.: High Density Power Electronics for Hybrid Traction Intelligent testing based on

mission profiles; ECPE HOPE Sindelfingen, Germany, 2008 CONTACT

Syposium,

Kai Kriegel, Project Manager for MOET in Siemens. ; Siemens AG, CT PS 1, Otto-HahnRing 6, D-81739 Munich kai.kriegel@siemens.com, http://www.siemens.com. Dr. Kai Kriegel received a PhD in Engineering, a Master degree in electrical engineering and a Master degree in business administration at the RWTH Aachen University. DEFINITIONS, ACRONYMS, ABBREVIATIONS

ECU EIPM EV HEV ICE IGBT MTBF SBD SiC A/C

Electronic Control Unit Enhanced Intelligent Power Module Electric Vehicle Hybrid Electric Vehicle Internal Combustion Engine Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor Mean Time Between Failures Schottky Barrier Diode Silicon Carbide Aircraft

Copyright 2009 MOET Project Consortium ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Page 8 of 8