| Abstract |
Taking into account typical power and temperature requirements of electric vehicle applications, siliconcarbide based semiconductor devices seem to be the most promising candidates for future highpower density traction inverter applications. Therefore, the design of a three-phase DC-AC inverterbased on SiC MOSFETs under automotive constraints is discussed in this paper. In order to fully utilizethe performance offered by these superior power semiconductors, the electrical design of a highpower module in combination with a low inductance DC-link design is presented. The switching behaviorof this prototype module is presented, emphasizing the significant improvements SiC powerdevices offer in terms of performance over state-of-the art silicon IGBTs. For EV applications, theobtained low switching losses in combination with the purely Ohmic output characteristics of thesedevices result in substantial efficiency improvements which are determined by means of drive cyclesimulations. First test bench measurements are presented with the full SiC inverter operating at aswitching frequency of 40 kHz. Overall, SiC MOSFETs offer the possibility to significantly increasethe performance, power density and efficiency of the electric drive system. |
