A Comprehensive and Comparative Study of Different Motor Drive Topologies Based on 1.2 kV- and 1.7 kV-SiC MOSFETs for Off-highway EV Applications

As the on-road electric vehicles (EVs) continue to mature, electrification of off-highway vehicles is getting more attention. The emergence of new-generation wide-bandgap (WBG) devices offers promising potential to revolutionize heavy-duty off-highway vehicle applications. This paper investigates the impact of 1.2 kV and 1.7 kV SiC devices on the design and performance of motor drives in off-highway vehicles. The SiC devices with higher voltage also open the opportunity to increase the DC-link voltage. Furthermore, two surface permanent magnet (SPM) machines are designed to operate with different DC-link voltages. A comprehensive comparison of different motor drive topologies for off-highway applications is conducted, including 2-level VSIs and 3-level T-type inverters, with different DC-link voltages associated with 1.2 kV and 1.7 kV SiC devices. The results provide insight into the advantages of higher voltage power architecture and show that the 2-level VSI using 1.7 kV SiC MOSFETs is a good candidate topology for off-highway vehicle applications.