Electrothermal Design of a GaN-Based Axially Stator Iron-Mounted Fully Integrated Modular Motor Drive

The concept of More Electric Aircraft (MEA) has gained a lot of attention from researchers recently. For such an application, two of the pivotal requirements are having a power dense and energy efficient propulsion system. To that end, in the design procedure of the electric motor and its drive system, high power density and efficiency over the entire operating range is the ultimate goal. Thus, the integration of the electric motor and drive system into a single unit has been introduced as an effective method to meet the design objectives. Therefore, this paper presents the design procedure of a module of an Integrated Modular Motor Drive (IMMD). Electrothermal design of the GaN single phase full bridge inverter module has been conducted and the results are discussed. The analysis includes the thermal investigation of the WBG semiconductors by sweeping the number of parallel devices in each switch position at different switching frequencies. Furthermore, a single drive PCB module is designed and evaluated in ANSYS Q3D for parasitic extraction. Finally, double pulse test (DPT) is performed to verify the optimal design of PCB busbar.