Increasing the voltage and the switching frequency in a dual active bridge using a normally-on SiC JFET in a cascode configuration

Silicon Carbide (SiC) transistors are becoming increasingly available in the market due to the fact that its manufacturing process is more mature. These new semiconductors have several advantages compared with traditional Silicon (Si) devices, such as, for example, higher voltage blocking capability, lower conduction voltage drop and faster transitions, which make them more suitable for high-power and high-frequency converters. The introduction of these new devices in switching power supply systems provides better performance enabling higher frequencies and consequently smaller, lighter and cheaper systems. Moreover, the increasing demand of an intermediate storage of electrical energy in battery systems has resulted in the need of bidirectional DC/DC power converters with galvanic isolation, for example due to the use of renewable energy or the incoming traction applications. A Dual Active Bridge (DAB) is a bidirectional DC/DC converter often used in these applications. This topology presents the advantages of soft-switching commutations, low cost, and high efficiency. Therefore, the use of this topology is proposed for applications where power density, cost, weight, and reliability are critical factors. This paper is focused in the inclusion of commercially available SiC transistors in a DAB converter taking advantage of the characteristic of these devices, as their good switching performance and their high voltage blocking capability. The main goal is to increase the voltage of the input or output voltage in a DAB and also to increase the switching frequency at the same time.

[1]  D.M. Divan,et al.  A three-phase soft-switched high power density DC/DC converter for high power applications , 1988, Conference Record of the 1988 IEEE Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting.

[2]  D.M. Divan,et al.  Performance characterization of a high power dual active bridge DC/DC converter , 1990, Conference Record of the 1990 IEEE Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting.

[3]  T. Chow,et al.  A comparative evaluation of new silicon carbide diodes and state-of-the-art silicon diodes for power electronic applications , 1999, Conference Record of the 1999 IEEE Industry Applications Conference. Thirty-Forth IAS Annual Meeting (Cat. No.99CH36370).

[4]  A. Mihaila,et al.  Analysis of static and dynamic behaviour of SiC and Si devices connected in cascode configuration , 2001, 2001 International Semiconductor Conference. CAS 2001 Proceedings (Cat. No.01TH8547).

[5]  T. Chow,et al.  Silicon carbide benefits and advantages for power electronics circuits and systems , 2002, Proc. IEEE.

[6]  A. Agarwal,et al.  SiC power-switching devices-the second electronics revolution? , 2002, Proc. IEEE.

[7]  M. Corradin,et al.  Performance evaluation of a Schottky SiC power diode in a boost PFC application , 2002 .

[8]  Johann W. Kolar,et al.  A gate drive circuit for silicon carbide JFET , 2003, IECON'03. 29th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IEEE Cat. No.03CH37468).

[9]  J. Kolar,et al.  A SiC JFET driver for a 5 kW, 150 kHz three-phase PWM converter , 2005, Fourtieth IAS Annual Meeting. Conference Record of the 2005 Industry Applications Conference, 2005..

[10]  Johann W. Kolar,et al.  Performance Optimization of a High Current Dual Active Bridge with a Wide Operating Voltage Range , 2006 .

[11]  Diego G. Lamar,et al.  Comparing Si and SiC diode performance in commercial AC-to-DC rectifiers with power-factor correction , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

[12]  J.W. Kolar,et al.  Accurate Small-Signal Model for the Digital Control of an Automotive Bidirectional Dual Active Bridge , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[13]  J. Kolar,et al.  Controllable dυ/dt behaviour of the SiC MOSFET/JFET cascode an alternative hard commutated switch for telecom applications , 2010, 2010 Twenty-Fifth Annual IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC).

[14]  Johann W. Kolar,et al.  Accurate Power Loss Model Derivation of a High-Current Dual Active Bridge Converter for an Automotive Application , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

[15]  Javier Sebastian,et al.  An overall study of a Dual Active Bridge for bidirectional DC/DC conversion , 2010, 2010 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition.

[16]  Daniel Domes,et al.  Stability and performance analysis of a SiC-based cascode switch and an alternative solution , 2012, Microelectron. Reliab..

[17]  M. Arias,et al.  Optimizing the efficiency of a dc-dc boost converter over 98% by using commercial SiC transistors with switching frequencies from 100 kHz to 1MHz , 2013, 2013 Twenty-Eighth Annual IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC).

[18]  José Millán,et al.  Wide Band Gap power semiconductor devices , 2007, 2013 Spanish Conference on Electron Devices.