Analysis on characteristic of 3.3‐kV full SiC device and railway traction converter design

Abstract

With the rapid development of wide-band gap semiconductor chip and package technologies, the voltage class of commercial silicon carbide (SiC) device is gradually improved. This paper concentrates on the latest 3.3-kV full SiC-based metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) device and its application in railway traction. First, compared with the Si-based insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), the SiC-based MOSFET shows lower switching loss but weaker short-circuit capacity. Second, in the railway traction application, the SiC-based MOSFET with high switching frequency could reduce the inverter loss, the harmonic loss and the noise of traction motor. Third, a well-designed filter is necessary between the inverter and the motor to prevent the motor from terminal overvoltage and insulation problem, which are resulted from long cable and high dv/dt. Finally, a full-SiC railway traction inverter prototype is built and tested, and shows obvious advantages on miniaturization and lightweight.