Achieving high-performance electrified actuation system with integrated motor drive and wide bandgap power electronics

An integration of an electric motor and a drive with wide bandgap (WBG) devices possesses numerous attractive features for electrified and decentralized actuation systems. The WBG devices are capable of operating at high junction temperature (>170 °C) with improved efficiency due to fast switching speed and low on-state resistance. It also leads to better performance and higher power density electro-hydrostatic actuators than the traditional solutions, which are being widely adopted in industrial applications such as aerospace, robotics, automobiles, manufacturing, wind turbine, and off-road vehicles. This paper introduces and investigates the benefits of the integrated motor drive (IMD) with the WBG-based power electronics for the electro-hydrostatic actuation systems.