Query: SiC power devices and applications in quasi-z-source

Candidate papers:

abstract: The wide band gap Silicon Carbide (SiC) material made power semiconductor devices have attracted increasing attentions in modern power electronics applications. They are able to not only provide wonderful performance of higher switching frequency, higher power, higher voltages, and higher junction temperature than silicon power devices, but also introduce significant decrease in the system volume and weight, and provide high reliability and high efficiency to power electronic systems. In this paper, a review of SiC devices in terms of characteristics, development, and applications are presented. And the SiC power device based quasi Z Source matrix converter and inverter are compared with the Silicon IGBT based ones, respectively, demonstrating a competitive solution for the future development of such converters/inverters.
author_names: Maoxing Li

Yushan Liu

Haitham Abu-Rub

Baoming Ge

Zainal Salam
title: SiC power devices and applications in quasi z source converters/inverters
venue: 2015 IEEE Conference on Energy Conversion (CENCON)
year: 2015

abstract: This paper presents a comparative study between a conventional boosted VSI electric/hybrid electric vehicle (EV/HEV) powertrain converter with alternative topologies including bidirectional CSI, Silicon (Si) based current fed Quasi Z Source Inverter (CF qZSI) and Silicon Carbide (SiC) based CF qZSI. The higher switching frequency operation of SiC MOSFETs enables the size reduction of reactive elements necessary for bi directional power flow through the input Z network, and results in higher efficiency and power density of the overall system. Research results support this claim, bolstering the possibility to replace conventional VSIs with CSIs in the future using wide bandgap (WBG) devices.
author_names: Faris E Alfaris

Subhashish Bhattacharya
title: A current fed quasi Z source inverter with SiC power modules for EV/HEV applications
venue: 2017 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE)
year: 2017

abstract: The conventional single phase quasi Z source (QZS) inverter has a high leakage current as it is connected to the grid. To address this problem, this paper proposes a transformerless QZS inverter, which can reduce the leakage current for single phase grid tied applications. The proposed inverter effectively alleviates the leakage current problem by removing high frequency components for the common mode voltage. The operation principle of the proposed inverter is described together with its control strategy. A control scheme is presented for regulating the DC link voltage and the grid current. A 1.0 kW prototype inverter was designed and tested to verify the performance of the proposed inverter. Silicon carbide (SiC) power devices were applied to the proposed inverter to increase the power efficiency. The experimental results showed that the proposed inverter achieved high performance for leakage current reduction and power efficiency improvement.
author_names: Woo-Young Choi

M Yang
title: Transformerless Quasi Z Source Inverter to Reduce Leakage Current for Single Phase Grid Tied Applications
venue: Electronics
year: 2019

abstract: The paper presents results of the experimental investigation of full SiC quasi z source (QZS) inverter. The study is devoted to a single phase dc ac solution which comprises SiC diode and SiC MOSFETs and demonstrates 97.1% efficiency. The experimental results that confirm efficient performance of the converter were presented and discussed. Due to its high efficiency and safe operation under high semiconductor devices temperatures the developed solution is feasible for PV applications. CEC efficiency characteristic was measured. The temperature behavior of semiconductors and heatsinks was investigated and detailed results were presented. The study aimed 1.8 kW as nominal power, however inverter was verified for secure operation and demonstrated acceptable efficiency for up to +33% from nominal power.
author_names: Serhii Stepenko

Oleksandr Husev

Dmitri Vinnikov

Sergio Pires Pimentel

Anatoliy Prystupa
title: Experimental Efficiency and Thermal Parameters Evaluation in Full SiC Quasi Z Source Inverter
venue: 2019 IEEE 60th International Scientific Conference on Power and Electrical Engineering of Riga Technical University (RTUCON)
year: 2019

abstract: The wide band gap Silicon Carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) materials based semiconductor devices have attracted tremendous attentions in modern power electronics applications. They provide much higher switching frequency and higher junction temperature than silicon power devices, thus to significantly decrease the system volume and weight, especially on passive components. In this paper, the characteristics of the SiC and GaN materials and devices are overviewed. A front end isolated quasi Z source cascade multilevel inverter (qZS CMI) based Photovoltaic (PV) power system is proposed to insulate the PV array from high voltage grid and make possible of PV grounding, thus to enhance the system reliability and safety. The SiC and GaN devices applied to the front end isolation of qZS inverter module are compared. Experimental results verify the proposed front end isolated qZS CMI and comparison results, demonstrating a competitive solution for the future development of such inverters.
author_names: Yushan Liu

Baoming Ge

Haitham Abu-Rub

Haiyu Zhang

Robert S Balog
title: Comparison of SiC and GaN devices for front end isolation of quasi Z source cascaded multilevel photovoltaic inverter
venue: 2016 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE)
year: 2016

abstract: Wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors including gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) offer significant performance improvement compared with conventional silicon power devices. The quasi Z source cascaded multilevel inverter (qZS CMI) provides many advantages over the conventional CMI while applied in photovoltaic (PV) systems. In this paper, two solutions are proposed and compared to the design goal of a high efficiency and low cost qZS CMI based 1 MW/11 kV PV system. The first solution is based on 650 V GaN enhancement mode high electron mobility transistors (E HEMT) and 650 V SiC Schottky diodes. The second solution uses 1200 V SiC power modules and 1200 V SiC Schottky diodes. The power losses and costs of the two candidate designs are compared in details. It is concluded that the first solution shows lower power losses and costs per quasi Z source inverter (qZSI) module. However, due to the low voltage rating of GaN E HEMTs, more qZSI modules are needed to achieve the overall 11 kV inverter rating. Therefore, the second solution shows lower total power loss and cost in the medium voltage, MW scale qZS CMI PV system.
author_names: Haiyu Zhang

Baoming Ge

Yushan Liu

Sertac Bayhan

Robert S Balog

Haitham Abu-Rub
title: Comparison of GaN and SiC power devices in application to MW scale quasi Z source cascaded multilevel inverters
venue: 2016 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE)
year: 2016

author_names: Zhan Haiyu

Ge Baoming

Li Yushan

Bayhan Sertac

S Balog Robert

Abu Rub Haitham
title: Comparison of GaN and SiC power devices in application to MW scale quasi Z source cascaded multilevel inverters
year: 2016

abstract: Silicon Carbide (SiC) based single phase quasi Z source inverter (qZSI) is proposed in this paper to provide a high power density and cost benefit solution for the Photovoltaic (PV) power application. Bulky qZS impedance network is unavoidable in conventional single phase qZSI even with SiC power devices, due to handling double line frequency (2o) ripple. The design of SiC based single phase qZSI is addressed in this paper through power loss evaluation and impedance parameters determination with active power filter's phase leg for compensting the 2o ripple. All passive components are small in size and weight under the high switching frequency of SiC devices. Power devices' losses of SiC and Si based inverter are compared. Simulation results at the designed parameters are introduced to validate the proposed solution.
author_names: Yushan Liu

Haitham Abu-Rub

Yichang Wu

Khalid A Ghazi
title: Design of SiC based single phase quasi Z source inverter
venue: 2018 IEEE 12th International Conference on Compatibility, Power Electronics and Power Engineering (CPE POWERENG 2018)
year: 2018

abstract: This paper discusses issues related to application of SiC power devices to new family of power converters. Impedance source converters show unique feature, buck boost characteristics due to specific impedance network. Passive elements of this network may be seriously reduced with the switching frequency increase, possible with fast switching SiC transistors. On the other hand, switching conditions of the power devices are more severe than in traditional voltage source or current source converters. These issues are discussed on the base of the 6kVA/100kHz quasi Z source inverter example.
author_names: Jacek Rabkowski
title: SiC Power Devices in Impedance Source Converters
venue: 2016 European Conference on Silicon Carbide Related Materials (ECSCRM)
year: 2016

abstract: This paper presents an in depth analysis of the driving loss for SiC MOSFETs in real applications to help designer determined the power rating of proper gate driving power supplies and select proper gate resistors with enough power rating. A detailed loss estimation method is provided based on the datasheet information. Results verifies that the total driving loss power is determined by driving voltage, device total gate charge and switching frequency. The driving loss distribution analysis with the consideration of the nonlinearity of device gate capacitance is presented which indicates that the loss on turn on and turn off resistors is different, and the loss distribution is related with device working conditions. The power supply implementation for negative voltage driving is also discussed. If two separate voltage sources provide the driving power, each of them must provide real power to drive device gate. If only one voltage source provides the total driving power, a voltage divider circuit or voltage regulate circuit is needed only to provide voltage reference, there is no current through the divider or regulator. No real power is needed from the divider or regulator circuit. Experimental test results are provided to verify all the analysis.
author_names: Xuning Zhang

Gin Sheh

In-Hwan Ji

Sujit Banerjee
title: In Depth Analysis of Driving Loss and Driving Power Supply Structure for SiC MOSFETs
venue: 2019 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC)
year: 2019