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Purpose With the increasing number of onboard controlled static converters in aeronautics, methods to design lighter configurations are required. This study aims to help the designer sizing optimal electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) filters and, moreover, finding optimal voltage levels and switching frequency, which have a great impact on the design and global mass of such converters.Design/methodology/approach Analytical models for capacitors, inductors and heatsink are settled. Using frequency modeling, EMC can be studied analytically. To deal with frequency and voltages variations, models of perturbations sources are developed. Concerning the problem of surveilling thousands of harmonics to check the whole frequency range of EMC standards in optimization, a strategy that drastically reduces the number of computations and has a good convergence is proposed.Findings The methods settled in the paper allow to optimize a controlled static converter with its EMC filters along with finding optimal switching frequency and voltage levels. A study on a three-phase rectifier reveals the importance of the switching frequency on converter design with EMC filters. A 28 per cent mass reduction is predicted by increasing the switching frequency from 10 to 30 kHz. The designed converters are verified by simulations.Research limitations/implications Investigating the voltage levels along with the switching frequency has not been achieved yet for static controlled converters with EMC constraints. The approach lacks experimental validations, but it is currently ongoing.Originality/value Dealing analytically with the changes of frequency or voltages in an EMC study is a new feature. The possibility to use deterministic algorithm is essential for dealing with the important number of constraints and the numerous interactions between all the parts of the problem, especially EMC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]