Medium Voltage Power Switch in Silicon Carbide—A Comparative Study

This paper discusses various solutions of energy conversion in medium voltage using power switches in Silicon Carbide (SiC) technology. In particular, a comparative study is focused on four different variants of an inverter phase leg operating at 1.5 kV DC, which has not been presented in the litera...

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Main Authors: Przemyslaw Trochimiuk, Rafal Kopacz, Krzysztof Frac, Jacek Rabkowski
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2022-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9726202/
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author Przemyslaw Trochimiuk
Rafal Kopacz
Krzysztof Frac
Jacek Rabkowski
author_facet Przemyslaw Trochimiuk
Rafal Kopacz
Krzysztof Frac
Jacek Rabkowski
author_sort Przemyslaw Trochimiuk
collection DOAJ
description This paper discusses various solutions of energy conversion in medium voltage using power switches in Silicon Carbide (SiC) technology. In particular, a comparative study is focused on four different variants of an inverter phase leg operating at 1.5 kV DC, which has not been presented in the literature yet. The first one is based on a standard two-level half-bridge built from a 3.3 kV SiC MOSFET power module rated at 450 A. Then, the two-level solution with series-connected devices inside 1.2 kV/450 A power modules is taken into account. Finally, a flying-capacitor phase leg also based on the same 1.2 kV devices is investigated in two different modes: a standard three-level operation and quasi-two-level mode with a significantly reduced capacitor. The presented study is founded on in-depth experiments: all four phase legs were designed, built, and tested in the laboratory. All versions were connected in a half-bridge configuration with an inductive load. Tests were conducted under identical conditions to test the overall performance and switching behavior for various gate resistances. In addition, different aspects are analyzed and compared in this paper, including parasitics, cooling performance, gate drivers and layout considerations, providing selection guidelines for power switches with SiC power devices in medium voltage power electronics applications.
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spelling doaj.art-c3a90f77d223458f85d8bf60ff0ad34c2022-12-22T01:00:27ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362022-01-0110268492685810.1109/ACCESS.2022.31562779726202Medium Voltage Power Switch in Silicon Carbide—A Comparative StudyPrzemyslaw Trochimiuk0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6361-6070Rafal Kopacz1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2054-9821Krzysztof Frac2Jacek Rabkowski3Institute of Control and Industrial Electronics, Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, PolandInstitute of Control and Industrial Electronics, Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, PolandInstitute of Control and Industrial Electronics, Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, PolandInstitute of Control and Industrial Electronics, Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, PolandThis paper discusses various solutions of energy conversion in medium voltage using power switches in Silicon Carbide (SiC) technology. In particular, a comparative study is focused on four different variants of an inverter phase leg operating at 1.5 kV DC, which has not been presented in the literature yet. The first one is based on a standard two-level half-bridge built from a 3.3 kV SiC MOSFET power module rated at 450 A. Then, the two-level solution with series-connected devices inside 1.2 kV/450 A power modules is taken into account. Finally, a flying-capacitor phase leg also based on the same 1.2 kV devices is investigated in two different modes: a standard three-level operation and quasi-two-level mode with a significantly reduced capacitor. The presented study is founded on in-depth experiments: all four phase legs were designed, built, and tested in the laboratory. All versions were connected in a half-bridge configuration with an inductive load. Tests were conducted under identical conditions to test the overall performance and switching behavior for various gate resistances. In addition, different aspects are analyzed and compared in this paper, including parasitics, cooling performance, gate drivers and layout considerations, providing selection guidelines for power switches with SiC power devices in medium voltage power electronics applications.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9726202/Medium voltagepower converterspower electronicspower MOSFETssilicon carbide
spellingShingle Przemyslaw Trochimiuk
Rafal Kopacz
Krzysztof Frac
Jacek Rabkowski
Medium Voltage Power Switch in Silicon Carbide—A Comparative Study
IEEE Access
Medium voltage
power converters
power electronics
power MOSFETs
silicon carbide
title Medium Voltage Power Switch in Silicon Carbide—A Comparative Study
title_full Medium Voltage Power Switch in Silicon Carbide—A Comparative Study
title_fullStr Medium Voltage Power Switch in Silicon Carbide—A Comparative Study
title_full_unstemmed Medium Voltage Power Switch in Silicon Carbide—A Comparative Study
title_short Medium Voltage Power Switch in Silicon Carbide—A Comparative Study
title_sort medium voltage power switch in silicon carbide x2014 a comparative study
topic Medium voltage
power converters
power electronics
power MOSFETs
silicon carbide
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9726202/
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AT rafalkopacz mediumvoltagepowerswitchinsiliconcarbidex2014acomparativestudy
AT krzysztoffrac mediumvoltagepowerswitchinsiliconcarbidex2014acomparativestudy
AT jacekrabkowski mediumvoltagepowerswitchinsiliconcarbidex2014acomparativestudy