Work

An Effective Current Balancing Method for Inverters With Paralleled Silicon Carbide Power Modules

Year: 2023

Type: article

Abstract: Silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET has many superior characteristics in high power applications. Paralleling the SiC devices is an effective approach to increase the current capacity of the system, which also leads to current sharing issues. In this article, both transient and steady-state current sharing issues are studied for the high-power grid-tied inverters with paralleled SiC modules with an effective current balancing strategy proposed to address both issues simultaneously. The steady-state imbalance current due to the parameter mismatch is suppressed by the self-inductance of power cables used for paralleling connection. With the elimination of steady-state imbalance current, the transient imbalance current sensing is much simplified and can be realized by using low-cost current sensors. With the sensed imbalance current, a closed-loop control approach is proposed to adjust the modulation reference signal for each module to mitigate the remaining transient imbalance current. The proposed method is straightforward to implement with enhanced compatibility and flexibility compared to existing methods. Experimental studies are performed using inverters with 2 and 4 power modules paralleled in each phase to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Source: IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications

DOI: 10.1109/tia.2023.3306750

Authors: Nan Lin, Yue Zhao, H. Alan Mantooth

Institution: University of Arkansas at Fayetteville

Language: English

Topic: Silicon Carbide Semiconductor Technologies

Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Industry, innovation and infrastructure, Affordable and clean energy

Open Access status: green