The Investigation of a 6.5-kV, 1-kA SiC Diode Module for Medium Voltage Converters

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Contributors

Abstract

This paper introduces a 6.5-kV 1-kA SiC PiN diode module for megawatt-range medium voltage converters. The analysis comprises a short description of the die and module technology and a device characterization. The effects of di/dt and temperature variation, as well as parasitic oscillations are discussed. A comparison of the results with a commercial Si diode (6.5 kV and 1.2 kA) is included. In the last section, an estimation of maximum converter output power, maximum switching frequency, losses and efficiency in a 3L-NPC converter operating with SiC and Si diodes is presented. The analyzed diode module exhibits a very good performance regarding switching loss reduction, which allows an increase of at least 16% in the output power of a 6-MVA converter. Alternatively, the switching frequency can be increased by 46%.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number6578550
Pages (from-to)2272-2280
Number of pages9
JournalIEEE transactions on power electronics
Volume29
Issue number5
Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2014
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

Scopus 84893116562

Keywords

Keywords

  • Silicon carbide, Semiconductor diodes, Silicon, Insulated gate bipolar transistors, Temperature measurement, Switching loss, Switches