Design and Implementation of a Modular Bidirectional Switch Using SiC-MOSFET for Power Converter Applications

Abstract

The bidirectional switch (Bi-Sw) is a power device widely used by power conversion systems. This paper presents a novel modular design of a Bi-Sw with the purpose of providing to beginner researchers the key issues to design a power converter. The Bi-Sw has been designed in modular form using the SiC-MOSFET device. The Bi-Sw uses the advantages of SiC-MOSFET to operate at high switching frequencies. The verification of the module is carried out experimentally by means of the implementation in a voltage regulating converter, where performance analysis, power losses, and temperature dissipation are performed.

Overview of Power Electronic Switches: A Summary of the Past, State-of-the-Art and Illumination of the Future

“…This modular configuration is often referred to as the four-quadrant switch, this is because the switch is capable of operating, in all four quadrants of power electronics switch operation, that is their ideal V - I characteristics. The implementation of the four quadrant switch is presented in Figure 15 [ 27 , 70 , 146 ]. As seen in Figure 15 a,b the four-quadrant operation is achieved by connecting two discrete switches (either IGBT or MOSFET) with anti-parallel body diodes connected in anti-series configuration, thereby achieving common emitter and common collector configuration.…”

“… Schematic implementation of ( a ) the ideal switch and the different possible implementation of the four quadrant switch with ( b ) two IGBTs each with an antiparallel diode connected anti-serially in common emitter configuration ( c ) two IGBTs each with an antiparallel diode connected anti-serially in common collector configuration ( d ) two reverse biasing IGBTs connected in antiparallel configuration and ( e ) diode bridge configuration with one IGBT [ 70 ]. …”

“…These impressively high stability characteristics, alongside the wide breakdown fields and very low ON-state resistances (it is reported that the R DS(ON) could be as low as 20 times that of silicon devices) of the devices made from wide band gap semiconductors makes this technology very promising and hence the potential future of power electronics [69]. In addition to these advantages, wide band gap (WBG) devices are capable of operating at high frequencies thus having the potential to require much lower filter sizes when they are utilized in converter circuits [70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80]. The efficiency and power density of the converter circuits is also positively impacted when WBG switches are used.…”

Grid integration of modular multilevel inverter with improved performance parameters

“…The function of the bidirectional switch is to block the positive or negative voltages as well as allows the flow of currents in any direction. Since the common emitter configuration 23 has less conduction losses and requires only one gate driver circuit it is chosen for the proposed topology. Figure 2 shows the generalized structure of the proposed inverter.…”

Improved Predictive Control in Multi-Modular Matrix Converter for Six-Phase Generation Systems

“…In order to validate the improvement of the proposed technique, an experimental setup has been assembled as is shown in Figure 8. The MC in this bench is based on the bidirectional switches described and designed in [32]. The control uses a MicroLabBox dSPACE and a Nexys 3 FPGA.…”