Semiconductor packaging and electronics consortium formed for all-electric aircraft

(May 26, 2010) MONT-SAINT-GUIBERT, Belgium — High-temp semiconductor provider CISSOID, along with the 13 other members of the consortium, jointly announced the CREAM European project. The CREAM Project addresses the thematic “Aeronautics and Air Transport (AAT)” through the objective of developing an “Innovative Technological platform for Compact & Reliable Electronic integrated in Actuator and Motor” destined for several applications of the All Electric Aircraft such as fuel pumps, landing gear or brake actuators, flight control actuators, etc.

The CREAM project is supported by the European Commission through the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) for Research and Technology Development with around 4.2M€ of grant out of 6.2M€ total budget. It started on the first of September 2009 and will last until the end of August 2012.

The CREAM project requires multi-disciplinary expertise shared between 14 partners (research centers, universities, SMEs, and large industries) from 10 countries. These partners include SAGEM (France), HISPANO-SUIZA (France), SEMELAB (UK), AIT (Austria), EPFL (Switzerland), ADVANCED SILICON (Switzerland), LEM (Switzerland), CISSOID (Belgium), Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (Germany), TEIP (Greece), NATUREN (Hungary), UAC (Russia), ROTECH ENGINEERING (Greece), and ALMA Consulting Group (France).

The political, environmental and economical trends for air transport are leading towards the all electric aircraft (AEA), state the CREAM consortium members. They note that electrifying aircraft creates opportunities to reduce weight, which leads to reduced carbon dioxide emissions and also to reduced maintenance costs. To design the AEA, the goal is to eliminate as many hydraulic power sources and complicated circuits of high-pressure hydraulic lines as possible. Replacement of conventional hydraulic systems will take place through the replacement of all hydrostatic actuators with electro-mechanical actuators (EMA) such as flight control actuators, braking system, landing gear actuators, propulsion inverters, various pumps, various auxiliary actuators, etc.

The real challenge, according to CREAM, is the development of compact, reliable, electrically powered actuators. The CREAM project will develop and validate various emerging sub-components, packaging, and motor technologies to integrate them into a high-performance smart electronic and motor technological platform destined to electric actuator preparation.

This technological platform will offer a panel of emerging semiconductor packaging technologies such as diamond copper substrates, flip chip assembly technologies, elimination of base plate, new magnetic material with higher magnetic properties and innovative thermal management system concepts.

The CREAM project targets new high-performance and reliability capabilities of electro-mechanical actuators (EMA) in harsh thermal environmental conditions (over 200°C), ready for use in all-electric aircraft.

Immediate benefits of the CREAM Project with electrical power and electronics in actuation include higher performances and reliability, benefits of overall weight reduction (optimization of power/weight ratio), easier maintainability, reducing operating costs (including reduced fuel burn), and enhanced safety.

Further information about the events, publications and the project consortium are available under the project public webpage www.creamproject.eu

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