Design and evaluation of SiC-based high power density inverter, 70kW/liter, 50kW/kg

This paper introduces the development and experimental performance of SiC-Based high power density inverter. The Power density of the developed inverter is about 70kW/litter in volumetric, 50kW/kg in gravimetric. The inverter is forced air cooled 2-level voltage source inverter. In order to achieve higher power density than conventional inverters, we need to reduce losses of inverters or improve cooling systems of inverters. First, we developed small light-weight SiC-MOSFET power module which has good thermal conductivity. We also developed gate driver to reduce switching losses and switching delay time. The prototype high power density inverter is developed with the developed power module and the proposed gate driver. The volume of the prototype inverter is about 0.5 liter and the weight is about 660g. Experimental results confirmed that the prototype inverter is able to operate up to 35kW, which means the power density of the prototype inverter is about 70kW/liter and 50kW/kg. The efficiency of the prototype inverter is more than 98%.