Mega-watt Class Ultra-high Density DC-DC Converters for Future Electric Aircraft Systems

Abstract

Very high power DC-DC converters, capable of processing megawatts of power, are critical components for future electrical aircraft systems based on innovative architectures that integrate storage and source elements. It is critical for such high power converters to achieve very high power density for meeting the challenging power-to-weight ratio of the target applications. In recent years, many researchers have reported their works on high power DC-DC converters for various applications towards making significant progress in this emerging area. However, a thorough review and comparison of the high power capable DC-DC converter architectures in the light of achieving very high power density for future electrical aircraft systems transportation application is yet to be reported. In this work, a comprehensive review of current state-of-the-art non-isolated high power dc-dc converter architectures is presented and their key merits towards achieving high power density are discussed. Based on this study, two potential power converter topologies are down selected and detailed design comparisons are carried out for a common set of electrical specifications. Design guidelines and future works are presented to conclude the work.