GaN based High Power Density PCB Design for Aerial Vehicles Motor Drive Applications

The aerial vehicles or electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft with electric motors-based distributed propulsion require highly efficient and high-performance power trains, which can be achieved through highly efficient wide band gap (WBG) electronics technology. However, it’s challenging to design very high power density printed circuit boards (PCBs) for such WBG applications due to their sensitivity and vulnerability to parasitics and noise, which result from poor PCB design. Moreover, the low current rating of the GaN device is a limitation to using it for such a high-current application. This research presents a Galium Nitride (GaN) based motor drive PCB design capable of lifting 50Kg payload (excluding the weight of the aerial vehicle itself i.e 47Kg) through multi-paralleled GaN approach, which ensures low parasitic, better Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) performance and the highest power density.