Power Electronics Circuits Design and Validation of a 2 kV 1 MW Integrated Modular Motor Drive for Electric Aircraft Propulsion

This paper presents the design and experimental analysis of the power electronics circuits for an integrated mod-ular motor drive (IMMD) for aircraft propulsion applications. The modular design of power electronics circuits to achieve 35.36 kW/kg specific power and free of partial discharge (PD) operation at 87 Torr air pressure is detailed. Experimental analysis of the thermal performance is conducted to validate the bus bar design for high current conduction of 500 A dc and 115 Arms ac currents. Additionally, the insulation design of the submodule has been successfully validated at 87- Torr air pressure without observable PD events from implemented sensors. Furthermore, the continuous operation capability of the power electronics circuits at 40-kHz switching frequency has been validated at rated peak current of 441 Apk and rated peak voltage of 2- k V separately.