Designing a low weight low loss auxiliary converter for railway application

Abstract:
In this paper a comparison of different hard- and softswitching DC-DC converter topologies for the use in an auxiliary power supply is being made with regard to weight reduction and semiconductor cost. With increased switching frequency the weight saving on inductive components is evaluated against the higher need for semiconductor chip area and heat sink weight. For the semiconductors standard Silicon IGBT´s are compared to SiC MOSFET´s on the basis of the needed chip area or the rated module current. All aspects are compared in a cost function which then results in an optimum converter design.