Design and evaluation of state of the art rectifiers dedicated for a 46 kW E-ECS aerospace application with respect to power density and reliability

A major intention of the “More Electric Aircraft” concept (MEA) [1], is the use of power electronics instead of mechanical, hydraulical or pneumatical systems, which promises reduced weight, higher efficiency and less maintenance costs. This paper presents the design of rectifier topologies Active Power Factor Correction (APFC) and Autotransformer Rectifier Unit (ATRU) dedicated for a 46 kW electrical environmental control system (E-ECS) for aerospace application. The derived power-densities reveal, that the active solution offers less weight. However, due to the use of power semiconductors, the lifetime is reduced compared to the passive transformer. To optimize the lifetime, four different switches are evaluated, taking into account losses, junction temperatures, power cycles to failure and cosmic ray susceptibility.