The development of efficient, high-performance materials for electrical energy storage and conversion applications has become a must to meet an ever-increasing need for electrical energy. Among devices developed for this purpose, capacitors have been used for pulsed power applications that require large power density with millisecond-scale charge and discharge. However, conventional polymeric films, which possess high breakdown strength, are limited due to low permittivity and hence compromise the energy storage capability of capacitors. In order to develop high energy density dielectric materials for pulsed power applications, two hurdles must be overcome: 1) the appropriate selection of materials that possess not only large permittivity but also high breakdown strength, 2) the optimization of material processing to improve morphology of dielectric films to minimize loss during energy extraction process. This thesis will present the development of novel dielectric material, with emphasis on the optimization of material and thin film processing toward improved morphology as ways to achieve high energy density at the material level. After first two chapters of introduction and experimental details, Chapter 3 will demonstrate the improvement of nanocomposite morphology via processing optimization and study its effect on the energy storage characteristics of nanocomposites thereof. Chapter 4 will investigate dielectric sol-gel materials containing dipolar cyano side groups, which are relatively a new class of material for pulsed power applications. Finally, Chapter 5 will discuss the effect of tunneling barrier layer on sol-gel films to mitigate charge carrier injection and associated conduction and breakdown phenomena, which would be significantly detrimental to the energy storage performance of dielectric sol-gel films.

Le domaine aéronautique connait de nos jours un engouement sans précédent autour de l’avion plus électrique. L’importance du nombre d’équipements électriques est à un tel point que l’amélioration de leur fiabilité devient incontournable. Actuellement, les composants passifs occupent 75 % des éléments électroniques utilisés en avionique dont la moitié correspond à des condensateurs. Ces derniers doivent donc répondre aux exigences environnementales avioniques assez contraignantes. C’est dans ce contexte que nous nous sommes intéressés particulièrement à l’étude des condensateurs à technologie film utilisant le polypropylène ou le polyester comme diélectrique. Afin de mieux comprendre le comportement fréquentiel de cette technologie, deux modèles fins de condensateurs films ont été développés, permettant ainsi de suivre les évolutions de leurs grandeurs électriques dans des conditions cohérentes avec l’application. Dans un deuxième temps, l’effet des contraintes en tension et en température constantes a été étudié sous la forme de facteurs d’accélération du vieillissement. Cela a été établi par l’intermédiaire de plusieurs essais, permettant d’établir les lois d’évolutions temporelles des paramètres électriques des condensateurs. Comme ces contraintes constantes ne sont pas toujours représentatives des conditions réelles d’utilisation, les cinétiques de dégradation ont été comparées à celles où les condensateurs sont sollicités par de fortes ondulations de courant, seules ou associées à une tension continue. Enfin, la dernière partie de notre travail expose l’utilisation des données expérimentales issues des essais de vieillissement dans un objectif de diagnostic en ligne. Les techniques utilisées assurent l'analyse de la dégradation de ces composants, étape essentielle dans la prédiction de l’état de santé des condensateurs en ligne / Nowadays, aeronautic research field is moving towards a more electric aircraft. Although this evolutionary path offers many advantages from a financial and ecological point of view, the increased power source usage sets additional constraints on the different electrical systems used onboard. Currently, passive components occupy 75% of the overall electronic equipments used in avionics, whose 50% corresponds to capacitors. Consequently, these latter must be able to withstand the harsh avionic operating conditions. In this thesis we were particularly interested in the study of metallized film capacitors technology using polyester or polypropylene as dielectric. A first approach consisted on the modeling of these components as function of frequency in order to study the evolution of their electrical parameters under consistent avionic stresses. These models were also developed on the purpose of tracking the degradation of the capacitors parameters over time. This operation was done by the means of accelerated floating ageing tests, where capacitors were subjected to different constant voltages and temperatures. Original capacitance ageing laws were thus proposed based on the identification of voltage and temperature degradation kinetics. However, since traditional floating ageing tests, do not reflects the normal ageing of the component, degradation kinetics of metallized films capacitors under high ripple currents, alone or combined with a DC voltage across the devices terminals where also studied, and the associated failure mechanisms were identified. A final step consisted on the health monitoring of metallized film capacitors online based on the experimental ageing data