Characterization of 3.3-kV Reverse-Blocking SiC Modules for Use in Current-Source Zero-Voltage-Switching Converters

Xiangyu Han; Liran Zheng; Rajendra Prasad Kandula; Karthik Kandasamy; Deepak Divan; Maryam Saeedifard

doi:10.1109/TPEL.2020.2999878

Characterization of 3.3-kV Reverse-Blocking SiC Modules for Use in Current-Source Zero-Voltage-Switching Converters

Xiangyu Han, Liran Zheng, Rajendra Prasad Kandula, Karthik Kandasamy, Deepak Divan, Maryam Saeedifard

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

Silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs with ratings of 3.3 to 15 kV represent a dramatic improvement over available silicon devices, enabling the realization of medium-voltage converters in demanding applications such as solid-state transformers. Typical voltage-source converter configurations realize significant reduction in switching loss with SiC devices, but high dv/dt of 30-50 kV/μs generates high levels of electromagnetic interference (EMI) and displacement currents. Current-source based zero-voltage switching (CS-ZVS) converters such as the soft-switching solid-state transformer (S4T), dramatically reduce switching loss using ZVS, thus realizing both controlled dv/dt and low EMI. CS-ZVS converters require reverse blocking (RB) modules that are realized using series connection of a diode and a MOSFET. However, no data are available from manufacturers or from literature on RB module characterization under ZVS conditions. This article presents detailed characterization results and model extraction for a 3.3 kV 45 A and a 1.7 kV 10 A SiC RB module, under both hard switching and ZVS modes. A novel double-pulse testbed is designed and built for this characterization of RB devices under both hard switching and ZVS conditions. Significantly, it is shown that when the RB modules are used in CS-ZVS converters, the dynamic voltage sharing between the RB modules in a phase leg and within the RB module (between the diode and the switch) results in a unique voltage stress. Modulation strategies to address this unique voltage stress are proposed and verified through experiment results, using a S4T prototype rated at 1.5 kV, 10 kVA.

Original language	English
Article number	9108627
Pages (from-to)	876-887
Number of pages	12
Journal	IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics
Volume	36
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2020.2999878
State	Published - Jan 2021
Externally published	Yes

Funding

Manuscript received July 27, 2019; revised December 30, 2019 and March 15, 2020; accepted May 19, 2020. Date of publication June 3, 2020; date of current version September 4, 2020. This work was supported in part by Power America, in part by ARPA-E under DE-AR0000899, and in part by Center for Distributed Energy at Georgia Tech. This article was presented in part at the IEEE 6th Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications (WiPDA), Atlanta, GA, USA, Oct.–Nov. 2018. Recommended for publication by Associate Editor J. Wang. (Corresponding author: Xiangyu Han.) Xiangyu Han, Liran Zheng, Rajendra Prasad Kandula, Deepak Divan, and Maryam Saeedifard are with the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332 USA (e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]).

Funders	Funder number
Power America
Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy	DE-AR0000899

Keywords

Current-source (CS) inverter
device characterization
double-pulse test (DPT)
reverse-blocking (RB) modules
soft-switching

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10.1109/TPEL.2020.2999878

Cite this

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title = "Characterization of 3.3-kV Reverse-Blocking SiC Modules for Use in Current-Source Zero-Voltage-Switching Converters",

abstract = "Silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs with ratings of 3.3 to 15 kV represent a dramatic improvement over available silicon devices, enabling the realization of medium-voltage converters in demanding applications such as solid-state transformers. Typical voltage-source converter configurations realize significant reduction in switching loss with SiC devices, but high dv/dt of 30-50 kV/μs generates high levels of electromagnetic interference (EMI) and displacement currents. Current-source based zero-voltage switching (CS-ZVS) converters such as the soft-switching solid-state transformer (S4T), dramatically reduce switching loss using ZVS, thus realizing both controlled dv/dt and low EMI. CS-ZVS converters require reverse blocking (RB) modules that are realized using series connection of a diode and a MOSFET. However, no data are available from manufacturers or from literature on RB module characterization under ZVS conditions. This article presents detailed characterization results and model extraction for a 3.3 kV 45 A and a 1.7 kV 10 A SiC RB module, under both hard switching and ZVS modes. A novel double-pulse testbed is designed and built for this characterization of RB devices under both hard switching and ZVS conditions. Significantly, it is shown that when the RB modules are used in CS-ZVS converters, the dynamic voltage sharing between the RB modules in a phase leg and within the RB module (between the diode and the switch) results in a unique voltage stress. Modulation strategies to address this unique voltage stress are proposed and verified through experiment results, using a S4T prototype rated at 1.5 kV, 10 kVA.",

keywords = "Current-source (CS) inverter, device characterization, double-pulse test (DPT), reverse-blocking (RB) modules, soft-switching",

author = "Xiangyu Han and Liran Zheng and Kandula, {Rajendra Prasad} and Karthik Kandasamy and Deepak Divan and Maryam Saeedifard",

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AB - Silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs with ratings of 3.3 to 15 kV represent a dramatic improvement over available silicon devices, enabling the realization of medium-voltage converters in demanding applications such as solid-state transformers. Typical voltage-source converter configurations realize significant reduction in switching loss with SiC devices, but high dv/dt of 30-50 kV/μs generates high levels of electromagnetic interference (EMI) and displacement currents. Current-source based zero-voltage switching (CS-ZVS) converters such as the soft-switching solid-state transformer (S4T), dramatically reduce switching loss using ZVS, thus realizing both controlled dv/dt and low EMI. CS-ZVS converters require reverse blocking (RB) modules that are realized using series connection of a diode and a MOSFET. However, no data are available from manufacturers or from literature on RB module characterization under ZVS conditions. This article presents detailed characterization results and model extraction for a 3.3 kV 45 A and a 1.7 kV 10 A SiC RB module, under both hard switching and ZVS modes. A novel double-pulse testbed is designed and built for this characterization of RB devices under both hard switching and ZVS conditions. Significantly, it is shown that when the RB modules are used in CS-ZVS converters, the dynamic voltage sharing between the RB modules in a phase leg and within the RB module (between the diode and the switch) results in a unique voltage stress. Modulation strategies to address this unique voltage stress are proposed and verified through experiment results, using a S4T prototype rated at 1.5 kV, 10 kVA.

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Characterization of 3.3-kV Reverse-Blocking SiC Modules for Use in Current-Source Zero-Voltage-Switching Converters

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