Comparative Study of Heatsink Volume and Weight Optimization in SST DAB cells Employing GaN, SiC-MOSFET and Si-IGBT Switches

Heatsink is a passive component for transferring heat due to power losses from power devices such as semiconductor switches in power electronic converters. Emerging semiconductor technologies such as GaN and SiC MOSFETs present lower conduction and switching losses than conventional Si devices which can led to increase efficiency and reduction of weight and volume. In this paper, comparative evaluation of the heatsink weight and volume optimization based on Si IGBT, SiC MOSFET and GaN is done in a dual-active-bridge (DAB) as a building block in solid-state transformers. A 5 kW DAB converter as one of the 16 modules in an 80 kW ISOP converter is considered in optimization. Heatsink design is done for three semiconductor types. Results show that GaN achieves lowest power losses while its heatsink size and volume is limited by the thermal properties of the GaN chip.

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