Alejandro Paredes

A novel active gate driver for silicon carbide MOSFET

A novel active gate driver (AGD) for silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET is studied in this paper. The gate driver (GD) increases the gate resistance value during the voltage plateau area of the gate-source voltage, in both turn-on and turn-off transitions. The proposed AGD is validated in both simulation and experimental environments and in hard-switching conditions. The simulation is evaluated in MATLAB/Simulink with 100 kHz of switching frequency and 600 V of dc-bus, whereas, the experimental part was realised at 100 kHz and 100 V of dc-bus. The results show that the gate driver can reduce the over-voltage and ringing, with low switching losses.

A novel EMI reduction design technique in IGBT gate driver for turn-on switching mode

This paper proposes a novel insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) gate driver. The new gate driver (GD) has positive effect on the injected gate current to enhance the IGBT switching mechanism. The approach is based on the Posicast control method. Simple structure is the most important advantage of this feedforward controller. The main objective is to improve turn-on switching transients without harmful effect on the IGBT efficiency. The electro-magnetic interface (EMI) reduction has been discussed as another important benefit of this control method.

Control and Modulation Techniques Applied to converters with impedances networks for traction systems

the development of different topologies of power converters with impedance networks have opened up new lines of research, its application in different areas such as transmission systems, high voltage, photovoltaic systems, these have yielded systems with high performance and efficiency, but in recent years its application in research and development of traction systems for electric vehicles have increased, these topologies can be bidirectional and replace the DC-DC booster used in conventional systems. But its implementation is necessary to know the different modulation techniques and control that can be used to reach more eficentes traction system and to consolidate these topologies. This article describes the different modulation and control techniques that can be applied to converter topologies with bidirectional impedance networks for applications in tracction systems for electric vehicle.

Performance of a new gate drive controller for improving IGBT switching trajectory

This paper presents a new active gate control (AGC) approach for improving the switching behavior of insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs). The proposed controller is applied on the gate driver (GD) of IGBT, which is based on Posicast control method. The reduction of stress in transient conditions without harmful effect on the efficiency is the main objective of this research that is accomplished by a simple feed-forward controller. The effectiveness of the proposed gate drive controller is verified by both MATLAB/Simulink and PSIM softwares. Moreover, the new GD is implemented in the experimental setup, and the results are reflected in this paper.

A simple gate drive for SiC MOSFET with switching transient improvement

This paper presents a new active gate drive for SiC MOSFETs switching. The proposed driver is based on feedforward control method. The switch is benefited from a simple and effective analog gate driver (GD). The main achievement of this GD is the transient enhancement with minimum undesirable effect on the switching efficiency. Also, the electromagnetic interference (EMI) as the main threat to the operation of SiC MOSFET is eliminated by this method. The proposed GD has been validated through the simulation and experimental tests. All the evaluation have been carried out in a hard switching condition with high-frequency switching.

A new active gate driver for improving the switching performance of SiC MOSFET

This paper introduces a novel active gate driver (AGD) for switching control of the silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs. The new gate driver improves the current and voltage profiles by suppression of the overshoot problems. The main innovation of the proposed AGD is the modification of gate-source voltage slope in two stages for both turn-on and turn-off transitions with a simple closed-loop control, which directly implies to the control of di/dt and dv/dt. The new gate driver is validated by experimental results. Moreover, an analysis of performance and electromagnetic interference (EMI) is realized. The experimental tests have been developed with 100 kHz of switching frequency and 200 V of dc-bus, in hard-switching conditions. The results show that the proposed AGD can reduce EMI problems with a minimum side effect on the efficiency of the SiC MOSFETs.

Implementation of high frequency SVM in a digital system for CS-SiC inverter

The operation of current source inverters at high frequency allows to reduce the size of the input coil and output filters. These advantages allowed to obtain converters with better performance and to reduce the size and weight of the passives elements, decreasing the manufacturing costs and while keeping the current harmonic distortion low. For these reasons, it is necessary to implement a modulation technique that allows the converter to work at a higher frequency 100 KHz. This article presents the design and implementation of a Space Vector Modulation (SVM) technique for high switching frequencies for a Current Source Inverter (CSI) topology implemented with SiC devices. The technique is programmed and implemented in a PIC 24FJ256GA406 microcontroller, for the activation and control of SiC devices in each leg of power converter.

Control Method of Impedance Network in SiC Power Converters for HEV/EV

Silicon carbide (SiC) devices provide significant performance improvements in many aspects, including lower power dissipation, higher operating temperatures, and faster switching, compared to conventional Si devices. All these features helped increase the interest in the applications of these devices for electric drive systems. The inclusion of an impedance network to elevate DC voltage would improve performance of an electric-traction system, because the topologies of impedances networks can eliminate the need of a DC-DC converter. However, it is important to know control methods that applicable to this type of topologies to systems that are more efficient. This paper presents the analysis of a control method in a power converter topology using SiC devices with an impedance network to elevate DC voltage for electric traction applications. The proposed analisys includes the implementation of a control method in Current Fed Quasi-Z topology, with 100 kHz switching frequency, and its analysis using the simulation of the control method, the power losses in SiC devices and the stress on passive components in the impedance network. Finally, the obtained results are compared with a conventional Current Fed Quasi-Z topology built with silicon devices at a low switching frequency (2 KHz).