Review of power electronics opportunities to integrate in the more electrical aircraft

Abstract

This paper reviews the main trends and opportunities to integrate in the power electronics systems dedicated to the More Electrical Aircraft (MEA). As a matter of fact, the emergence of this promising concept implies a revision of the usual aircraft architectures. As a consequence, it leads to the creation of new converters and strategies of energy management. In addition, with the challenging objectives announced by aircraft manufacturers, current technologies are not performant enough to ensure the expected requirements. They have to be highly improved or replaced by innovative ideas thanks to new explorations or technological ruptures in terms of topology, material and strategy. Thus, the emerging innovations and future developments in aeronautic are presented in this paper and assessed thanks to the literature and the expertise of the Avionics and Simulation Products department of Airbus.