RCD snubber design based on reliability consideration: A case study for thermal balancing in power electronic converters

Abstract In a turn-off RCD snubber, the capacitor value is usually optimized in order to minimize the power dissipated in the switch and snubber circuit. However, it may not be the best value of the snubber capacitor from the reliability point of view. In this paper, the capacitor value is optimized based on reliability considerations. Proposed method presents a new design to achieve the maximum reliability for the set of switch and its snubber. Mathematical analysis of the proposed method is conducted in MATLAB environment. Also, the experimental results are presented for validity of the theoretical analysis.

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