Novel iGSE-C Loss Modeling of X7R Ceramic Capacitors

Due to the large relative permittivity of Class II dielectrics, ceramic capacitors (CCs) from these materials promise significant volume and weight reductions in inverter and rectifier sine-wave filters, and are especially attractive in mobile applications that demand ultrahigh power density. While previous literature found large low-frequency losses in these components, no extensible loss model was proposed to accurately characterize these ferroelectric losses. In this article, we take advantage of prior art on ferromagnetic components in power electronics to propose a Steinmetz parameter-based loss modeling approach for X7R CCs, named the Improved Generalized Steinmetz Equation for CCs, or iGSE-C. This model is verified using the Sawyer-Tower circuit to measure losses in a commercially available X7R capacitor across excitation magnitude, dc bias, temperature, excitation frequency, and harmonic injection. Losses are shown to scale according to a power law with charge, with the resulting Steinmetz coefficients valid across dc bias and slightly varying as the temperature is increased. The iGSE-C accurately predicts losses for typical nonsinusoidal phase voltage waveforms with an error under 8%. Finally, the loss modeling technique is demonstrated for the sine-wave output filter of a bridge-leg arrangement with both low- and high-frequency excitations, with total capacitor losses predicted within 12% accuracy.