Search

This paper is about the development and demonstration of a motor drive for e-transport applications based on an innovative hybrid Si-SiC dual switching frequency interleaved buck–boost Y-inverter and a single-rotor Halbach machine. In particular, the focus is the implementation of the required discontinuous inverter modulation scheme, input voltage feed-forward and motor currents feedback control loops, as well as over-voltage, over-current, and over-temperature protections, using an off-the-shelf commercial hardware platform enabling straightforward Simulink-environment programming of all parts, while ensuring the high switching frequency capability required by wide-band-gap semiconductors. Experimental results showed good inverter efficiency, transient dynamic response to load changes, input voltage regulation, and fully functional protection capability, validating the proposed approach as a powerful option for reducing system development time and cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a state-of-the-art inverter–machine codesign methodology for achieving an energy-efficient electric drive system. The methodology is applied in an optimal design case study with the context of the latest trend in the 800 V system. To reduce the voltage rating, a three-level active neutral point clamped topology is utilized in the inverter design, incorporating silicon carbide technology for high-speed operation. This combination allows for efficient power conversion with reduced losses. In the machine design, the increased number of poles that can be achieved in the design phase, along with the utilization of high-speed switching frequencies, enables the development of more efficient machines. Based on the design of the experiment method, by optimizing the parameters of both the inverter and machine simultaneously, using a cosimulation model, the 7.7% of total energy loss during drive cycle operation can be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the operation of PowerMOSFETs in the 42-V-PowerNet and shows that very stressful conditions are encountered, which can lead to severe reliability problems. To enable thorough investigations by circuit simulations an accurate physics-based compact model of the devices is proposed: it includes all important electrothermal effects relevant to the description of the observed failure mechanisms. By means of an advanced thermal-modeling approach, multichip assemblies can be accurately described, including mutual heating effects between neighboring devices. Some properly chosen examples demonstrate the validity of the model and its usefulness for reliability investigations. Index Terms--Electrothermal effects, modeling, power metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs), reliability.

The ability of monitoring the chip temperatures of power semiconductor modules at all times under various realistic working conditions is the basis for investigating the limits of the maximum permissible load. A novel transient thermal model for the fast calculation of temperature fields and hot spot temperature evolution presented recently is extended to include time-dependent boundary conditions for variations of ambient temperature and surface heat flows. For this a Green's function representation of the temperature field is used. Also, general initial temperature conditions are included. The method is exemplified by application to a dc/ac converter module for automotive hybrid drives. The thermal model, which can be represented by a thermal equivalent circuit, then is combined with an electrical PSpice-metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) model to allow for the fully self-consistent electrothermal circuit simulation of 42-V/14-V dc/dc-converter modules. 670 converter periods with altogether 8000 MOSFET switching cycles in the six-chip module can be simulated within 1-h computing time on a Pentium PC. Various simulation results are presented, which demonstrate the feasibility of the simulation method and allow for the optimization of converter losses. Short circuit modes of converter operation are investigated with a high temperature increase also revealing the thermal interaction between different chips. Index Terms--DC- and ac-converter for automotive, electrothermal simulation, multichip modules, PSpice metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) model, thermal equivalent circuit, time-dependent boundary conditions.