Reliability analysis of a high-efficiency SiC three-phase inverter for motor drive applications

• Silicon Carbide as an emerging technology offers potential benefits compared to the currently used Silicon. One of these advantages is higher efficiency. If this is targeted, reducing the on-state losses is a possibility to achieve it. Parallel-connecting devices decrease the on-state resistance and therefore reducing the losses. Furthermore, increasing the amount of components introduces an undesired tradeoff between efficiency and reliability. A reliability analysis has been performed on a three-phase inverter for motor drive applications rated at 312 kVA. This analysis has shown that the gate voltage stress determines the reliability of the complete system. Nevertheless, decreasing the positive gate-source voltage could increase the reliability of the system approximately 8 times without affecting the efficiency significantly. Moreover, adding redundancy in the system could also increase the mean time to failure approximately 5 times.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Elektroteknik och elektronik -- Annan elektroteknik och elektronik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering -- Other Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Inveter

Markov Chain

Motor Drive Application

Power Modules

Reliability

SiC

Silicon Carbide

Voltage Source Conveter

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)