Wide-band gap devices in PV systems - opportunities and challenges

A design tool to study the impact of mission-profile on the reliability of SiC-based PV-inverter devices

“…A detailed description of the PV-inverter hardware implementation has been presented in [9]. The PV-inverter simulation and the laboratory test are performed at the same conditions.…”

Construction and evaluation of photovoltaic power generation and power storage system using SiC field-effect transistor inverter

“…The SiC devices can be operated at higher temperatures of ~600 °C without much change in their electrical properties compared with Si devices (~200 °C). The SiC devices are one of the leading candidates of next generation power devices [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

Performance benchmark of Si IGBTs vs. SiC MOSFETs in small-scale wind energy conversion systems

“…Wide bandgap devices, such as Silicon Carbide (SiC) exhibit advantages over Silicon (Si) for power semiconductor applications: higher switching frequency, higher temperature capability, higher power density and higher reliability [1][2][3]. Nowadays, the commercially available power MOSFETs that satisfies the above benefits are with voltage ratings of 400, 650, 900, 1200 and 1700V for both discrete and module packages, and Schottky diodes with ratings up to 8KV [2].…”

“…This recent commercialization is expected to have the potential to deliver revolutionary impact on power electronics industry in the future. According to the availability of SiC power MOSFETs on the markets; the main areas that can be utilized by this technology are PV inverter, speed drives, pumps and automotive [3], as well as small-scale wind turbines.…”

“…Finally, the thermal resistance of SiC devices is smaller than that of Si (typically three times), this aiming to increase the power density of the device or decrease the device operational temperature. However, SiC technology shows limitation to the maximum exploitation of the potential benefits of this technology due to the packaging, particularly in terms of high temperature feature, power density, parasitic inductance and electro-magnetic noise [1][2][3][4].…”