CISSOID is part of the CREAM European Consortium For All Electric Aircrafts

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 centres, Universities, SME’s and large industries) from 10 countries : 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), ALMA Consulting Group (France).

The actual political, environmental and economical trends for air transport are leading towards the All Electric Aircraft (AEA). As a matter of fact, it was demonstrated that electrifying aircraft gave the opportunities to reduce weight which leads to reduced carbon dioxide emissions and also to reduced maintenance costs thanks to a simplification of maintenance tasks and an improvement of the global reliability. To design the All Electrical Aircraft, the goal is to eliminate as many hydraulic power sources and complicated circuit of high-pressure hydraulic lines as possible. The replacement of the conventional hydraulic systems will take place through the replacement of all hydrostatic actuators with Electro-mechanical Actuators EMA (flight control actuators, braking system, landing gear actuators, propulsion inverters, various pumps, various auxiliary actuators).

The real challenge 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 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.

Thanks to the CREAM project, it will be possible to reach 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 (optimisation of power/weight ratio),

- easier maintainability,

- reducing operating costs (including reduced fuel burn),

- enhanced safety.