Design and Realization of a 100 kHz – 100 kW Series Resonant Inverter with SiC-MOSFETs Connected in Parallel for a High Frequency Induction Heating Application

Abstract:
With the development of recent technologies on semiconductor industry, SiC-MOSFETs are becoming more and more popular in today’s power electronic era. As their operating voltages are getting higher, they have started to replace IGBTs in many applications due to their much less power dissipation and more availability of using in high frequency applications. In this article an induction surface hardening system which operates at around 100 kHz frequency and up to 100 kW output power level has been studied. In order to fulfill these requirements SiC-MOSEFT Power Modules were chosen and two of them per one switch were connected in parallel in order to build-up a full bridge structure for a series resonant inverter. In order to minimize the parasitic inductance effects, a careful study was held on during the parallelization of the SiC-MOSFET modules. Beside this a new and reliable control technique to follow the resonant frequency has also been introduced and realized.