Design and Switching Performance Evaluation of a 10 kV SiC MOSFET Based Phase Leg for Medium Voltage Applications

10 kV SiC MOSFETs are promising to substantially boost the performance of future medium voltage (MV) converters, ranging from MV motor drives to fast charging stations for electric vehicles (EVs). Numerous factors influence the switching performance of 10 kV SiC MOSFETs with much faster switching speed than their Si counterparts. Thorough evaluation of their switching performance is necessary before applying them in MV converters. Particularly, the impact of parasitic capacitors in the MV converter and the freewheeling diode is investigated to understand the switching performance more comprehensively and guide the converter design based on 10 kV SiC MOSFETs.A 6.5 kV half bridge phase leg based on discrete 10 kV/20 A SiC MOSFETs is designed and fully validated to operate continuously at rated voltage with dv/dt up to 80 V/ns. Based on the phase leg, the impact of parasitic capacitors brought by the load inductor and the heatsink on the switching transients and performance of 10 kV SiC MOSFETs is investigated. Larger parasitic capacitors result in more oscillations, longer switching transients, as well as higher switching energy loss especially at low load current. As for the freewheeling diode, the body diode of 10 kV SiC MOSFETs is suitable to serve as the freewheeling diode, with negligible reverse recovery charge at various temperatures. The switching performance with and without the anti-parallel SiC junction barrier Schottky (JBS) diode is compared quantitatively. It is not recommended to add an anti-parallel diode for the 10 kV SiC MOSFET in the converter because it increases the switching loss

Multi-objective optimization of power electronic converters

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A Review of Power Converters for Ships Electrification

Fully electric ships have become popular to meet the demand for emission-free transportation and improve ships' functionality, reliability, and efficiency. Previous studies reviewed the shipboard power systems, the different types of shipboard energy storage devices, and the influences of the shore-to-ship connection on ports' electrical grid. However, the converter topologies used in the electrification of ships have received very little attention. This article presents a comprehensive topological review of currently available shore-to-ship and shipboard power converters in the literature and on the market. The main goal is to anticipate future trends and potential challenges to stimulate research to accelerate more efficient and reliable electric ships