Journal
IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS
Volume 9, Issue 3, Pages 3501-3516Publisher
IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC
DOI: 10.1109/JESTPE.2020.3003796
Keywords
Logic gates; Optical switches; Switching circuits; RLC circuits; Power supplies; Silicon carbide; Snubbers; Power conversion; power transistors; snubbers
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation [1439700]
- Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation
- Southern Company
- EPRI
- Directorate For Engineering
- Div Of Industrial Innovation & Partnersh [1439700] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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This paper presents a modular switching position design for series connection of power semiconductors with voltage balancing and self-powered gate capabilities. Through simulations and testing of a 3.3-kV switching position formed by two 1.7-kV SiC MOSFETs in series, the results demonstrate the ability of the proposed switching position to balance the voltage across series-connected MOSFETs even if the gate signals are not perfectly synchronized. Additionally, a startup circuit for the switching position is proposed and experimentally confirmed.
Medium-voltage converters, especially those making use of SiC devices, require high common-mode voltage immunity and resilience against associated high dv/dt across multiple isolation barriers. A truly modular and common-mode immune switching position could be beneficial for these applications. The design of a modular switching position is presented here for a series connection of power semiconductors with voltage-balancing and self-powered-gate capabilities. The designs of the voltage-balancing and self-powered circuits are described, followed by simulations and testing of a 3.3-kV switching position formed by two 1.7-kV SiC MOSFETs in series. Testing results demonstrate the ability of the proposed switching position to balance the voltage across series-connected MOSFETs even if the gate signals of the series-connected devices are not perfectly synchronized while powering themselves directly from the OFF-state voltage across them. In addition, a startup circuit for the switching position is proposed and experimentally confirmed.
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