Dynamic Testing of a High Power Inverter 250 KW Switched Reluctance Machine Starter/Generator

Preliminary testing of a 125kW power inverter for a switched reluctance aircraft engine starter/generator system has been completed and system testing of the complete starter/generator system has been initiated. The starter/generator employs a single switched reluctance machine (SRM) and a generating system architecture that produces two separate 270Vdc buses from that single SRM The machine has six phases with three of the phases connected to one inverter supplying 125kW to one 270Vdc bus while the other three phases are connected to a second inverter supplying 125kW to the other 270Vdc bus. Each bus has its own EMI filter and controller in addition to its own inverter. Two types of inverters have been developed, one type employs MOS Controlled Thyristors for the controlled switches and the other type employs Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors. The link capacitor bank for each inverter employs multilayer ceramic capacitors to meet the starter/generator's temperature requirements. These same multilayer ceramic capacitors are also used in the EMI filters. The measured performance data obtained for both inverters is presented.