Development of High-Current Solid-State Power Controllers for Aircraft High-Voltage DC Network Applications

Solid-state power controllers (SSPCs) have been received increasing attention as they can configure the electrical system and protect the system by fast tripping mechanism at the same time. Although the high-voltage direct current (HVDC) electrical system can bring sustainable savings on the cables’ weight and losses, the protection can be considerably challenging. SSPCs have been successfully utilized for 28V DC aircraft onboard network. However, high-voltage ones are impeded by the vast over-voltage and the excessive losses generated from SSPC switching. This paper tries to fill this gap and presents the development of high-power SSPCs for a ±270VDC network of a future turboprop aircraft. Comprehensive designs of proper over-voltage suppression along with SSPC thermal management are presented in this paper. Besides, a comparative study on the SSPC device is carried out. Two prototypes, including a single MOSFET module and paralleling several discrete MOSFET devices, are built and then tested in the experiment. It has been validated that the proposed voltage clamping design cannot only effectively suppress the over-voltage, but also limit the SSPC temperature increase during switching for both candidates. After comparing the conduction losses, maximum junction temperature, power density, weight and volume, the single device solution is recommended as a preferable SSPC option for future aircraft.