WP1: Power Conversion - Diamond Power Semiconductor Devices
This WP is dedicated to the design, manufacturing and characterisation of diamond power transistors. The growth of high quality and low defect monocrystalline diamond epilayers is being performed by DIAMFAB, the design, optimisation and characterisation of diamond power transistors is led by CNRS and linked 3rd party UGA whereas the fabrication of diamond power transistors is being done by both CNRS+UGA and DIAMFAB in the frame of a technology transfer.
The outcomes of this WP during the present report period are included in D1.3 Functional prototype Diamond power Field Effect Transistors (batch 1) and D1.4 Functional prototype Diamond power Field Effect Transistors (batch 2). Three articles have been published, six communications in conferences have been performed and two datasets have been produced and published in Zenodo with public access. Batch 1 was produced but conduction channel was not able to be closed to obtain an OFF-state. It was agreed to use one of the samples as a JFET semiconductor to be packaged and sent to SKLE to be characterized. Batch 2 was produced. From this second batch we have also been able to measure a JFET transistor with the same architecture than for batch 1. Finally, due to delay from task 1.8 no FET with field plate were able to reach the characterization steps during the time of the DCADE project. No samples from batch 2 were packaged.
WP2: Power Conversion - Converter Manufacturing
The main goal of this WP is to compare the behavior of new materials as semiconductors and its application in power converters. The design and manufacturing of the power converter is being carried out by SKLE. Once they are fabricated and characterized in WP1, the diamond semiconductors will be tested and compared to SiC semiconductors in order to verify their electrical and thermal behavior. The converter topology has been analysed and optimized through simulation in order to select the most suitable one. The SiC converter has been fully designed, manufactured and the SiC semiconductors have been characterized. This work is described in D2.3 – Functional prototype – DC-DC SiC Converter. Batch 1.5 from WP1 have been packaged by DeepConcept and shiped to Skylife. Diamond driver has been designed and manufactured, ready to connect to the already designed power converter. Characterization of such batch JFET 1.5 was not possible using the power converter becasuse the pology needed a minimum of 2 units and because electrical characeristics of received semiconductor differs a lot from expected one. Some tests were perfomed over the 1.5 sample and these results are described in D2.4 - SiC vs Diamond semiconductors results.
WP3: Arc - Fault Detection
The purpose of this WP is to evaluate the ability of an AI (neural network combined with a reflectometry algorithm) to detect an arc fault and to locate it in an aircraft distribution network. State-of-the-art arc fault detectors measure the current to perform the detection and, unfortunately, produce an unacceptable number of false detections. A neural network dedicated to detection should significantly reduce the number of false detections.
The IRT has performed the following tasks to evaluate the IA solution:
After performing a extensive study of the state of the art, they have created the database necessary to carry out the learning of the neural network. This database contains the arc fault voltage and current signals measured at various locations in the aircraft distribution network. These database has been published as dataset in Zenodo.
Secondly, they have defined the most suitable neural network architecture among the different possible architectures and carried out the learning of the neural network from the signal database.
Thirdly, SKLE has implemented an electronic board and external packaging to integrate the LN and AI algorithm in order to evaluate their performances. Experimental validation has been performed.
The outcomes of this WP are included in D3.4 - AFD prototype, algorithm and validation report.The results have also been described in several journal publications.
