TY - JOUR

T1 - Characterization and scalable modeling of power semiconductors for optimized design of traction inverters with si-and sic-devices

AU - Merkert, Arvid

AU - Krone, Tobias

AU - Mertens, Axel

PY - 2014/5

Y1 - 2014/5

N2 - Silicon carbide (SiC) based power semiconductors are expected to contribute to an increase in inverter efficiency, switching frequencies, maximum permissible junction temperature, and system power density. This paper presents a comparison of silicon (Si) and SiC device technologies for the use in hybrid electric vehicle traction inverters. SiC-JFETs and SiC-MOSFETs are characterized and a scalable loss and scalable thermal modeling approach is used to find the optimum chip area for each Si or SiC traction inverter. This procedure also provides a proper technical comparison of the semiconductor technologies. The progressed simulations using standardized drive cycles and thermal-electrical coupled semiconductor models permit an inverter performance evaluation close to real load situations, leading to an improved estimation of the benefit which can be expected from systems utilizing SiC technology. This paper concludes that the SiC devices can lead to a reduction in chip area and semiconductor losses by more than 50% at the same time in hard switching applications with partial load dominated mission profiles.

AB - Silicon carbide (SiC) based power semiconductors are expected to contribute to an increase in inverter efficiency, switching frequencies, maximum permissible junction temperature, and system power density. This paper presents a comparison of silicon (Si) and SiC device technologies for the use in hybrid electric vehicle traction inverters. SiC-JFETs and SiC-MOSFETs are characterized and a scalable loss and scalable thermal modeling approach is used to find the optimum chip area for each Si or SiC traction inverter. This procedure also provides a proper technical comparison of the semiconductor technologies. The progressed simulations using standardized drive cycles and thermal-electrical coupled semiconductor models permit an inverter performance evaluation close to real load situations, leading to an improved estimation of the benefit which can be expected from systems utilizing SiC technology. This paper concludes that the SiC devices can lead to a reduction in chip area and semiconductor losses by more than 50% at the same time in hard switching applications with partial load dominated mission profiles.

KW - Design methodology

KW - hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs)

KW - IGBTs

KW - JFETs

KW - MOSFETs

KW - power semiconductor devices

KW - silicon carbide (SiC)

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84893088457&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1109/TPEL.2013.2294682

DO - 10.1109/TPEL.2013.2294682

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84893088457

VL - 29

SP - 2238

EP - 2245

JO - IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics

JF - IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics

SN - 0885-8993

IS - 5

ER -