The gradual evolution from hydro-pneumatic to electrical disposition of power in aircraft has placed stringent requirements on the reliability of power electronic components in current and future aerospace applications. This paper examines the prevalent state-of-the-art in power electronics and provides an analytical overview of power electronics in More Electric Aircraft (MEA) vis-à-vis the generation and distribution of power within these aircraft.

The types of power devices currently employed for multiple conversion topologies are analysed and weighed according to their respective reliability characteristics. Beginning with an in-depth review of failure modes in the currently available devices, the paper highlights the salient emerging state-of-the-art Wide Band Gap (WBG) technologies such as Gallium Nitride (GaN) and Silicon Carbide (SiC) and draws an extensive comparison with their Silicon counterparts.

A comprehensive examination of techniques employed for the estimation of the reliability of WBG power devices has revealed a number of areas that merit due consideration. For instance, the physics-based models that have been developed to assess the operational lifetime of silicon-based devices for given failure modes require revamping in light of the new materials and the unique electrical and physical characteristics the WBG devices possess. Similarly, the condition monitoring techniques, with respect to the primary and secondary parameters, require further investigation to determine highly representative feature vectors that best describe the degradation within these devices. More significantly, optimisation of the proposed techniques for the health assessment of these devices needs to be pursued through the optimal use of vital parameters. Keeping these critical findings in perspective, a road map highlighting various avenues for power electronics optimisation in MEA is put forth to apprise the aerospace fraternity of its growing significance.

从液压气动到飞机电力配置的逐渐演变，对当前和未来航空航天应用中电力电子元件的可靠性提出了严格的要求。本文研究了电力电子领域的最新技术，并提供了多电动飞机 (MEA) 中电力电子与这些飞机内电力的产生和分配的分析概述。

目前用于多种转换拓扑的功率器件类型根据其各自的可靠性特性进行分析和权衡。本文首先对当前可用设备的故障模式进行了深入审查，重点介绍了新兴的最先进的宽带隙 (WBG) 技术，例如氮化镓 (GaN) 和碳化硅 (SiC) 以及与他们的硅同行进行了广泛的比较。

对用于估计 WBG 功率器件可靠性的技术进行了全面检查，揭示了许多值得适当考虑的领域。例如，为评估硅基器件在给定故障模式下的使用寿命而开发的基于物理的模型需要根据新材料以及 WBG 器件拥有的独特电气和物理特性进行改进。同样，关于主要和次要参数的状态监测技术需要进一步研究，以确定最能描述这些设备内退化的具有高度代表性的特征向量。更重要的是，需要通过优化使用重要参数来优化用于这些设备的健康评估的拟议技术。