• Journal of Power Electronics
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• 제11권4호
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• pp.606-611
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• 2011

Power electronics is a key technology for electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and fuel cell vehicles. Typical power electronics converters used in electric drive vehicles include dc/dc converters, inverters, and battery chargers. New semiconductor materials such as silicon carbide (SiC) and novel topologies such as the Z-source inverter (ZSI) have a great deal of potential to improve the overall performance of these vehicles. In this paper, a Z-source inverter for fuel cell vehicle application is examined under three different scenarios. 1. a ZSI with Si IGBT modules, 2. a ZSI with hybrid modules, Si IGBTs/SiC Schottky diodes, and 3. a ZSI with SiC MOSFETs/SiC Schottky diodes. Then, a comparison of the three scenarios is conducted. Conduction loss, switching loss, reverse recovery loss, and efficiency are considered for comparison. A conclusion is drawn that the SiC devices can improve the inverter and inverter-motor efficiency, and reduce the system size and cost due to the low loss properties of SiC devices. A comparison between a ZSI and traditional PWM inverters with SiC devices is also presented in this paper. Based on this comparison, the Z-source inverter produces the highest efficiency.

• 전력전자학회논문지
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• 제24권3호
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• pp.147-152
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• 2019

With the recent emphasis on the importance of energy conservation, studies on high-efficiency elevator systems are being continuously conducted. Therefore, pulse width modulation converters are commonly used in traction drives on elevator systems. Wide bandgap devices have been increasingly commercialized, and their application to power conversion systems, such as renewable and energy storage system, has been gradually increasing. In this study, a SiC inverter for an elevator traction drive is investigated. In particular, an inverter is designed to minimize stray and parasitic inductance. Input and output filters are designed by considering switching frequency. The designed SiC inverter reduces volume by approximately 32% compared with that of a Si inverter, and power converter efficiency is over 98.8%.

• 전력전자학회논문지
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• 제26권6호
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• pp.429-436
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• 2021

The design of a gate driver power supply for a three-phase inverter using a silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET. The requirements for the power supply circuit of the gate driver for the SiC MOSFET are investigated, and a flyback converter using multiple transformers is used to make the four isolated power supplies. The proposed method has the advantage of easily constructing the power supply circuit in a limited space as compared with a multi-output flyback converter using a single core. The power supply circuit for the three-phase SiC MOSFET inverter for driving an AC motor is designed and implemented. The operation and validity of the implemented circuit are verified through simulations and experiments.

• 전력전자학회:학술대회논문집
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• 전력전자학회 2014년도 추계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.85-86
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• 2014

The paper presents a power supply of atmospheric-pressure plasma reactor based on SiC (Silicon Carbide) MOSFET resonant inverter. Thanks to the capacitive characteristic of capacitive coupling plasma reactor type, the LC series resonant inverter had been applied to take advantages of this topology with the implementation of SiC MOSFET power modules as switching power devices. Designation of gate driver for SiC MOSFET had been introduced by this paper. The 5kVp, 5kW power supply had also been verified by experimental results.

• 전력전자학회:학술대회논문집
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• 전력전자학회 2020년도 전력전자학술대회
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• pp.205-208
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• 2020

This paper examines the approach, enabled by using SiC power devices, to unify the inverter design for central air conditioning (CAC) system for both single- and 3-phase input, and reduce the PFC inductor size to be PCB-mountable. By using SiC-instead of Si-diode in PFC stage, it is possible to increase the switching frequency from 16kHz to 60kHz to reduce the required PFC inductance from 0.93mH to 0.25mH, thus enable PCB-mounting of inductor. With the next step of using 1200V SiC MOSFET instead of Si-IGBT, the DC link voltage can be boosted from 311Vdc to 550Vdc in PFC stage, allowing the inverter and compressor used in 3-phase input CAC be used for single-phase input as well. Furthermore, using SiC MOSFET in inverter stage can further reduce total loss system total loss to 200.8 W. Simulation and experimental results are presented in the paper.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• 제10권3호
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• pp.1066-1074
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• 2015

This paper presents the reverse recovery characteristic according to the change of switching states when Si diode and SiC diode are used as clamp diode and proposes a method to minimize the switching loss containing the reverse recovery loss in the neutral-point-clamped inverter at low modulation index. The previous papers introduce many multiple circuits replacing Si diode with SiC diode to reduce the switching loss. In the neutral-point-clamped inverter, the switching loss can be also reduced by replacing device in the clamp diode. However, the switching loss in IGBT is large and the reduced switching loss cannot be still neglected. It is expected that the reverse recovery effect can be infrequent and the switching loss can be considerably reduced by the proposed method. Therefore, it is also possible to operate the inverter at the higher frequency with the better system efficiency and reduce the volume, weight and cost of filters and heatsink. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by numerical analysis and experiment results.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.591-601
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• 2019

With the development of renewable energy, grid-connected inverter technology has become an important research area. When compared with traditional silicon IGBT power devices, the silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET shows obvious advantages in terms of its high-power density, low power loss and high-efficiency power supply system. It is suggested that this technology is highly suitable for three-phase AC motors, renewable energy vehicles, aerospace and military power supplies, etc. This paper focuses on the SiC MOSFET behaviors that concern the parasitic component influence throughout the whole working process, which is based on a three-phase grid-connected inverter. A high-speed model of power switch devices is built and theoretically analyzed. Then the power loss is determined through experimental validation.

• 한국정보전자통신기술학회논문지
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• 제12권5호
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• pp.499-506
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• 2019

본 논문은 SiC Hybrid module를 적용한 7kW 인버터의 동작 안정성에 관한 것으로 손실 방정식과 시뮬레이션 결과를 비교하여 시뮬레이션 결과의 유효성을 검증하였으며, 시뮬레이션을 통해 Si module과 SiC Hybrid module의 스위치 손실과 다이오드 손실을 비교하였다. 손실 방정식 계산을 통하여 SiC Hybrid module의 도통 손실은 168W, 스위칭 손실은 9.3W, 다이오드 손실은 10.5nW의 결과를 나타내었으며, 시뮬레이션 결과와 비교하였을 때 유사한 값을 나타내었다. 이를 바탕으로 Si module과 SiC Hybrid module의 시뮬레이션 결과 값 비교 결과, Si module의 총 소자 손실값은 246.2W, SiC Hybrid module의 총 소자 손실 값은 189.9W를 나타내었으며, 손실 차이 값은 56.3W로써 약 0.8W의 효율 차이를 보였다. 이로 인하여 SiC SBD의 Reverse recovery 특성을 검증하였다. 또한 고온 포화상태에서 SiC Hybrid module 및 Si module의 안정성을 확인하기 위하여 온도 포화 테스트를 진행하였으며, Si module의 경우, 출력전력 4kW에서 동작을 멈추었고, SiC Hybrid module은 7kW까지 동작을 확인하였다. 이를 바탕으로, 효율 그래프와 온도 그래프를 제시하였으며, Si module은 4kW까지, SiC Hybrid module은 7kW까지 그래프로 나타내었다.

• 전기전자학회논문지
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• 제24권1호
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• pp.170-177
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• 2020

본 논문은 HF/LF 변조 방법을 적용한 ANPC (active neutral point clamped) 인버터의 스위치 개방 고장에 대응하기 위한 허용 제어 방법을 제안한다. 기존 Si 기반 인버터에 비해 SiC MOSFET과 Si IGBT로 구성된 ANPC 인버터는 시스템의 효율이 높고 출력 품질이 우수하다. HF/LF 변조는 커뮤테이션 루프를 줄일 수 있어 MW 급 대용량 인버터를 위해 사용되는 변조 기법이다. MW 급 인버터의 스위치 개방 고장은 부하에 심각한 손상을 입히며, 인버터가 동작을 멈출 경우 막대한 경제적 손실을 야기한다. 제안하는 스위치 개방 고장의 허용 제어 기술은 ANPC 인버터의 지속적인 운전을 가능하게 하며 신뢰성을 향상 시킨다. 제안하는 기법의 성능은 시뮬레이션 결과를 통해 검증한다.

• 전력전자학회:학술대회논문집
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• 전력전자학회 2015년도 전력전자학술대회 논문집
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• pp.309-310
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• 2015

본 논문에서는 SiC FET를 이용한 80kW 3상 PWM 인버터의 특성에 대해 다룬다. 기존 IGBT 인버터와 SiC FET 인버터의 게이트 특성, 각 부 손실, 시스템 효율 등을 시뮬레이션 및 실험하여 비교 분석한다.