PhD thesis Evalution of different Gate Drive Co ncepts for SiC semiconductors Part 2
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | Bombardier Transportation Sweden AB - Bombardier Transportation Sweden AB, Västerås |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 1 065 000 |
| Project duration | December 2014 - February 2016 |
| 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 MOSFET evaluated along with different variants of gate drives. Important parts of the work is published at the conference of EPE´15 ECCE Europe in Geneva and will be published at IPEMC 2016-ECCE Asia in Hefei.
Results and expected effects
The 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 MOSFET than with the silicon IGBT, which is the today´s standard semiconductor. This was also shown in the paper presented in Geneva. This potentially contributes to a more energy efficient train drive system. Remining questions are the reliability and the cost.
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. 3. Design of prototype gate drives 4. Evaluation of those gate drives with prototype modules of SiC technology.