Beyond Ubiquitous: The role of Wide Band-gap Semiconductors in Electric Aircraft

电力电子技术是广泛领域的关键使能技术，对实现净零碳议程至关重要。工程师们面临的关键挑战之一是实现碳中和航空航天，这是一项关键挑战，要求超高效率、高可靠性的电力电子系统占用有限的体积。与电动汽车和可再生能源整合所带来的挑战相比，这些航空航天需求带来了不同的挑战。宽带隙半导体，如碳化硅，目前在电力电子领域占主导地位，用于一系列最终用户应用，包括电动汽车和可再生能源系统。对于航空航天应用，需要更高的工作温度，雷击风险增加和宇宙射线通量增强，这意味着航空航天面临着独特的挑战，需要不同于其他领域的技能。这些差异意味着，在学术界和工业界的传统电力电子课程中教授的概念并不能使工程师具备为电动飞机领域做出贡献所需的独特技能。该项目通过为在航空航天工业工作的人员提供培训来满足这一需求，并专门设计以确保英国在飞机电气化方面保持领先地位。培训将包括宽带隙半导体的基本优势，重点是碳化硅，然后概述航空航天工业面临的独特挑战和潜在的解决方案。案例研究材料将由劳斯莱斯提供，作为他们对该项目的贡献，该项目将涵盖航空航天系统容错电源的开发，这些将被用作证明解决方案可行性的工具。

Power electronics is a key enabling technology in a wide range of fields that are critical to the achievement of the net zero carbon agenda. One of the key challenges facing engineers is the realisation of carbon neutral aerospace, with the requirements for ultra-high efficiency, highly reliable power electronic systems, that occupy a limited volume, being the critical challenge. These aerospace requirements provide a different challenge to those posed by electric vehicles and renewable energy integration.Wide bandgap semiconductors, such as silicon carbide are now dominant in the power electronics field for a range of end user applications, including electric vehicles and renewable energy systems.For aerospace applications, the need for higher operating temperatures, the increased risk of lightning strikes and the enhanced cosmic ray flux mean that aerospace faces unique challenges that require different skills to other fields. These differences mean that concepts that are taught in conventional power electronics courses, both within academia and industry do not equip engineers with the unique skills required to make a contribution to the field of electric aircraft.This project addresses that need, by providing training for people working in the aerospace industry and has been designed specifically to ensure that the UK maintains its leading position in the electrification of aircraft.The training will encompass the fundamental advantages of wide bandgap semiconductors, focussing on silicon carbide, before outlining the unique challenges to the aerospace industry and the potential solutions. Case study materials will be provided by Rolls Royce as their contribution to the project, which will cover the development of fault tolerant power supplies for aerospace systems and these will be used as a vehicle to demonstrate the viability of the solutions.