PhD thesis Evalution of different Gate Drive Concepts for SiC semiconductors
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | Bombardier Transportation Sweden AB - Propulsion & Controls |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 1 165 000 |
| Project duration | November 2012 - December 2014 |
| Status | Completed |
Purpose and goal
In order to evaluate the appropriate gate drives along with the latest in SiC technology, which is the purpose of the project, following has been done: 1. Silicon Carbide JFET ( Infineon demonstrator ) evaluated along with different variants of Bombardier gate drive . Important parts of the work published at EPE2014 in Lappeenranta , Finland. 2. Controllability of both JFET and MOSFET has been investigated in order to optimize the train system with different turn-on and turn-off behavior.
Results and expected effects
Power losses with different gate drive solutions and modules with SiC technology are measured . Our tests show that the complexity of the gate drives is higher with JFET technology than MOSFET technology. Power losses in the converter is essentially much lower with SiC JFET than with the silicon IGBT, which is the today´s standard semiconductor. This was also shown in the paper presented in Finland. This potentially contributes to a more energy efficient train drive system.
Approach and implementation
The work has been set up as a PhD work 1. PhD courses to gain a deeper understanding of SiC technology and power inverter / power systems in general. 2. Literature study to investigate how the outside world analyzes gate drive solutions. 4. Evaluation of gate drives with prototype modules of SiC technology.