| Abstract |
As experienced for most power electronic applications in the past, efficiency is also becoming one of the key characteristic for automotive applications, affecting the design of future high-voltage components for electric vehicles. In case of traction inverters, mainly semiconductor losses deteriorate system efficiency and thus, upgrading the switches in hard-switched PWM-controlled 2-level inverters is a direct measure to significantly reduce system losses. For this task, SiC MOSFETs are a promising class of power semiconductors with superior device charac-teristics. With SiC high power modules becoming available on a broader basis, proper design-in approaches are necessary in order to obtain robust and cost-effective system solutions. Address-ing this topic, a new full-SiC power module suited for direct replacement of existing Si-based solutions is described in this paper. A simulation and measurement-based analysis of the effi-ciency benefits of such a retrofit solution for a 400 V based drivetrain with up to 300 kW of output power is presented. Simulation results predict a loss reduction on inverter level of around 50 \% compared to the Si IGBT based solution with respect to steady-state part load operation. The simulation results are verified by drivetrain test bench measurements showing a very high accuracy of the simulation model. Drive cycle simulations indicate an advantage in terms of energy consumption of up to 6.6 \% for the drivetrain equipped with SiC MOSFETs over its counterpart equipped with Si IGBTs. |
