Evaluation Engineering - 2

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MHOCKETT@EVALUATIONENGINEERING.COM

More electric aircraft =
more challenges
As I read and reviewed the then-freshly
written special report on Mil/Aero test
featured on pages 6-11 of this August issue
of Evaluation Engineering, one particular
theme struck a chord with me: the overall
movement toward more electric aircraft
(MEA).
Just as in the automotive world, where
the trend toward autonomous vehicles-or
at least partially autonomous vehicles-
continues to make headway into the market
year-after-year, military and commercial aircraft technology continues to push toward
utilizing electric power for all non-propulsive
systems.
The benefits of the MEA movement are
many, with the major ones including improvements in aircraft weight, fuel efficiency, reduced operation noise, lower total life cycle
costs, lower maintenance costs, and better
overall aircraft reliability.
But as with the increasing electrification
of so many other technologies we use in our
every day lives, the engineering challenges
have progressed hand-in-hand. Perhaps the
biggest among the global MEA market is the
need for large amounts of electric power for
systems and the struggle to achieve full efficiency with the current technologies available
in power electronics. As part of this, thermal
management is a major challenge, as electric systems generate a large amount of heat
which needs to be relegated into a heat sink
for an aircraft to operate safely.
But even with these challenges, MEA has
seen widespread acceptance and application
by various military around the world. Besides
its operational and maintenance benefits, a
major positive MEA can provide is silent electric engine operation. This enables aircraft to
fly at low altitude undetected and has led to
particular implementation in small electric
aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles.
The vendors included in this issue's Mil/
Aero test special report touch on the technology challenges that MEA brings, as
they relate to the testing solutions vendors

EVALUATION ENGINEERING AUGUST 2019

provide for Mil/Aero applications. The report
spans six pages and is a long read, but is
packed with great information throughout.
A full dozen vendors' commentaries are included, and while that tells us at Evaluation
Engineering that Mil/Aero test is a huge topic
for our audience, it presents the editorial
challenge of fitting all that commentary into
a fe ature that's not novel length. Given the
great response for this topic and its broad
nature, we'll consider doing two Mil/Aero
special reports in 2020 and having each take
a more defined focus.
Staying on the topic of Mil/Aero test, I'm
excited to attend AUTOTESTCON, which will
be held Aug. 26-29 in National Harbor, MD.
While certainly not one of the larger industry events in terms of the amount of vendors
exhibiting, AUTOTESTCON is much more focused. I attended SEMICON West July 8-10
in San Francisco, where nearly 500 exhibitors spanned everything from semiconductor design, inspection, and test, to sensors.
Meanwhile, AUTOTESTCON 2019 is set to
have only 50+ vendors exhibiting, but nearly
all of them are directly involved with Mil/
Aero test applications in some capacity and
are the type of vendor the EE audience is used
to reading about. At the show, I'm looking
forward to taking in educational sessions
and talking with some of the engineers and
product who provided commentary to our
Mil/Aero test special report.
Besides covering this topic once or twice
a year in our special reports, we're always
looking for contributed educational content
on Mil/Aero test to publish any time of the
year. Whether it's a shorter blog post, a brand
new article, or an existing whitepaper that
can be condensed into an informative piece,
we'd be happy to share it with our audience. Just shoot me an email at mhockett@
evaluationengineering.com and tell me what
you have in mind.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

33.1 BILLION
Global semiconductor
sales during May 2019

14.6%
Sales decrease vs. May 2018
Source: Semiconductor Industry Association

5.6%
Year-over-Year increase
in North American PCB
shipments in May 2019

.99
PCB book-to-bill ratio in
May (1.00 is parity)
Source: IPC

2.06 BILLION
North American billings of
semiconductor equipment
posted in May 2019

23.6%
Decrease in billings
vs. May 2018
Source: SEMI

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Evaluation Engineering

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