SiC MOSFETs for Offshore Wind Applications

Abstract

Space and weight are critical factors for offshore wind applications during the construction, operation, and maintenance phases. Superior material properties of silicon carbide enable the development of power devices capable of switching fast as well as handling high power. Thus, this paper performs the quantitative evaluation of the total converter loss and efficiency at different switching frequencies in order to observe the potential performance gains that SiC MOSFETs can bring over Si IGBTs for such applications. When simulating the detailed converter losses in a three-phase, two-level topology; the turn-on and turn-off switching energy losses obtained from the laboratory measurement and the conduction losses acquired from the datasheet are used as a look-up table input. Additionally, the simulated results are compared with the analytical and the numerical solutions. In conclusion, this analysis gives an insight into how SiC MOSFET outperforms Si IGBT over all switching frequency ranges with the advantages becoming more visible at higher frequencies.