State of the art in solid state power controller for aeronautical application

A recent breakthrough in power transistors technology has enabled the speeding up of the development of HVDC techniques for aeronautical applications. Concerning the power distribution, solid state power controllers (SSPC) are proving now to be a mature product, in a wide range of current, from 1 to 60 amps. However, depending of their implementation in the electrical power network, as well as of the loads they control, their features widely differ. This paper is aimed at describing the main features required and the corresponding technical and technological innovative solutions for achieving them. Low current devices must comply with the most general requirements such as low ON resistance, high side and low side switching capabilities, short-circuit and overload protection, while high current devices incorporate more specific features like very low ON status drop out, active current limiting for large capacitive loads, fault tolerance capability, and internal DC/DC power converter supplied by the power network