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Using UCC28063A for aircraft single and three phase at 400 Hz

Other Parts Discussed in Thread: UCC28063A, UCC28180, UC3854, UC3842

Will the UCC28063A work for aircraft single and three phase power at 400 Hz. If not, what range of frequencies will it support?

  • James,
    The UCC28063A was designed for the industrial, consumer market to operated from a line voltage frequency of 47Hz to 63Hz
    and there is no test data available for operation at 400Hz.
    The UCC3854 has been used extensively in three phase 208Vac to 460Vac (welding and plasma cutting applications) but at 50/60Hz.
    In these applications the UCC3854 provides power factor correction but not harmonic distortion reduction.

    Aircraft power grade is usually as specified in RTCA DO 160 or Mil Std 704 and as far as I know there is no requirements for power factor correction, but I may be wrong.
    What is the product application and why are you interested in a transition mode multi phase controller ?

    Regards,
    John
  • John,

    Thanks for your response. The end application is AC to DC power conversion from 400Hz, 115 AC to DC with control of the harmonics and power factor in the aircraft. I am thinking to utilize both single phase as well as three phase based on the power requirement. Do you have any recommendations for this? The goal is to implement this system without a processor.

  • James,
    A 3 phase aircraft power source has a line to line voltage of 115V. If you rectify the 3 phases with a 6 diode bridge then the input current will look like a quasi square wave with a curved top. This happens because the phase that was conducting is forced off when the next sequential phase voltage is greater. The discontinuities in the input phase current cause large harmonic distortion. You can still get good power factor though.
    Do you know what harmonic content you require?
    Also what output power is required?
    I am unable to locate any reference design data for a 400Hz pfc application and I suggest that you test some of the TI EVM's at 400Hz and evaluate the results.
    The UCC28180 for example is a CCM type pfc controller that is suitable for application over 100W.
    It does not monitor the input line so it should be indifferent to line frequency values.

    Regards,
    John
  • Thanks, John!
    I don't yet know the requirements for harmonic content or output power. Thank you for your recommendations and explanations.
  • Hello James,

    I designed a 900 W PFC for the A350 that had to meet the DO 160. I seem to remember that the PF requirement was reasonably low, however the harmonic content specification was very challenging. And this requirement infers a high power factor since power factor is proportional to distortion factor and harmonic content.

    Or you can meet the requirement with low active power factor and passive harmonic traps. Our customer did not want that approach since harmonic traps are large and heavy. Weight is very important in aerospace as you know.

    The commercial/industrial ICs did not help since the frequency range for aircraft power is from 400 Hz to 800 Hz. The multiplier in the UC3854 is not designed to keep up with this high frequency. We could not reduce the "cusping" that occurs at the zero crossing on the sinewave input.  We designed a discrete PFC based on the UC3842 and a wide-bandwidth multiplier IC. I designed this circuit in 2009, We also used a nonlinear ramp and were able to achieve 0.99 PF. There may be ICs available that can work at 800 Hz. I am not sure. 

    I can provide more assistance off line if you want .

    Good luck with your project.

    Chuck

  • Thank you, Chuck! I will let you know if I need more assistance on this design.