Towards an airborne high temperature SiC inverter

Abstract

SiC devices enable for high temperature operation of power converters. The paper describes the laboratory step by step work towards an airborne high temperature inverter : 200C cooling source, 4 kVA power. From 'JFET only' to 'full three phase power stage' tested up to 250C, including capacitor. Device samples are characterized in order to set the requirements for the gate driver and to evaluate maximum switchable power. Switching losses are measured using high precision shunt and voltage probes. A prototype is built and operation under full load (15A) is verified.