Isolated Cryogenic Auxiliary Power Supply (CAPS) for GaN Based Converters

The rise of fuel prices and an increasing demand for lower carbon emissions has driven the aviation industry to replace conventional fuel sources with more dense cryogenic fuels in future aircrafts. As a result of this new cryogenic environment, GaN based power electronics converters are expected to dominate because of their improved performance. This paper targets designing a cryogenic auxiliary power supply (CAPS) that can provide enough power and isolation for gate drivers in larger GaN converters. The CAPS design could enable further research into cryogenic power electronics converters; which so far, has been lacking. The CAPS has been successfully demonstrated to operate both at room and cryogenic (77 K) temperatures. This design has also been successfully integrated with a gate driver and with a double pulse test platform driving up to 400 V and 60 A at both room and cryogenic temperatures.