Towards High Power Ratings: Prospects and Challenges of SiC Technology

Conference: PCIM Europe 2015 - International Exhibition and Conference for Power Electronics, Intelligent Motion, Renewable Energy and Energy Management
05/19/2015 - 05/20/2015 at Nürnberg, Deutschland

Proceedings: PCIM Europe 2015

Pages: 6Language: englishTyp: PDF

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Authors:
Noeding, Christian; Kazanbas, Mehmet; Araujo, Samuel; Zacharias, Peter (Center of Competence for Distributed Electric Power Technology (KDEE), University of Kassel, Wilhelmshöher Allee 71, 34121 Kassel, Germany)

Abstract:
With the increasing maturity of SiC technology, high power systems are becoming an interesting field of application. Here grid converters for wind power systems are included as well as future PV-central inverters or railway converters. As shown in this paper the superior performance in terms of very low switching energies allows higher switching-frequencies to reduce the weight of filters and isolation transformers. Passive cooling can be considered as well, enhancing the system reliability significantly. An insight on theses aspects will be presented in this paper, followed by an overview of technical challenges still to be addressed.