Iron Loss Properties of Amorphous Ring under High-Frequency SiC Inverter Excitation with Different Dead-times Using High Sampling Rate

Abstract

In recent years, amorphous materials have been used for inductor and transformer cores to improve the efficiency of high power-density converters utilizing wide-bandgap semiconductor devices. In which, issues of the iron loss in magnetic cores under different operating conditions of these converters are important and should be considered thoroughly. Therefore, this paper presents an experimental investigation of the iron loss characteristics of an amorphous ring core under the silicon carbide (SiC) inverter excitation at high carrier frequencies of up to 200 kHz using a high sampling rate of up to 5 GS/s in measurement. Effects of large changes in the dead-time and modulation index of the SiC inverter on the iron loss density of the amorphous ring are also examined. Moreover, impacts of several key factors, such as the fast-rising time in nanoseconds, ringing phenomenon occurring at megahertz frequency, total harmonic distortion (THD) of the ring's voltage, and minor B-H loops, on the increase in the iron loss density are analyzed. In addition, the iron loss properties of the amorphous ring core are compared to that of another ring core made from a non-oriented electrical steel for reference. Finally, concise physic-based insights and explanations for the main results are shown.