Lightweight High-Voltage Power Converters for Electroaerodynamic Propulsion

Recent studies in electroaerodynamic (EAD) propulsion have stimulated the need for lightweight power converters providing outputs at tens of kilovolts and hundreds of watts [2]–[4]. This article demonstrates a design of a lightweight high-voltage converter operating from a 160–225 V dc input and providing dc output of up to 565 W at 40 kV. It operates at around 500 kHz and achieves a specific power of 1.15 kW$\cdot {\text{kg}}^{-1}$. High-voltage converters generally comprise an inverter, a step-up transformer, and a rectifier, with the large needed voltage gain distributed among these stages. Several means of realizing these stages are compared in terms of weight. The weight of the converter is minimized by properly selecting and optimizing the design and the voltage gain of each stage within the constraints of device limitations and losses. A prototype circuit is developed based on this approach and used to drive an EAD propulsion system for an unmanned aerial vehicle. Moreover, this article also presents approaches to further improve the specific power of such converters, including better diode utilization and more flexible high-voltage transformer design. In addition to addressing the needs for EAD, this research can potentially benefit the development of lightweight high-voltage converters in many other applications, where weight and size are important.