An Ultralow Loss Inductorless $dv/dt$ Filter Concept for Medium-Power Voltage Source Motor Drive Converters With SiC Devices

Abstract

In this paper, a novel dv/dt filter is presented targeted for 100-kW to 1-MW voltage source converters using silicon carbide (SiC) power devices. This concept uses the stray inductance between the power device and the converter output as a filter component in combination with an additional small RC-link. Hence, a lossy, bulky, and costly filter inductor is avoided and the resulting output dv/dt is limited to 5-10 kV/μs independent of the output current and switching speed of the SiC devices. As a consequence, loads with dv/dt constraints, e.g., motor drives can be fed from SiC devices enabling full utilization of their high switching speed. Moreover, a filter-model is proposed for the selection of filter component values for a certain dv/dt requirement. Finally, results are shown using a 300-A 1700-V SiC metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET). These results show that the converter output dv/dt can be limited to 7.5 kV/μs even though values up to 47 kV/μs were measured across the SiC MOSFET module. Hence, the total switching losses, including the filter losses, are verified to be three times lower compared to when the MOSFET dv/dt was slowed down by adjusting the gate driver.