Generalized behavioral modelling methodology of switch-diode cell for power loss prediction in electromagnetic transient simulation

Abstract

Modern wide-bandgap (WBG) devices, such as silicon carbide (SiC) or gallium nitride (GaN) based devices, have emerged and been increasingly used in power electronics (PE) applications due to their superior switching feature. The power losses of these devices become the key of system efficiency improvement, especially for high-frequency applications. In this paper, a generalized behavioral model of a switch-diode cell (SDC) is proposed for power loss estimation in the electromagnetic transient simulation. The proposed model is developed based on the circuit level switching process analysis, which considers the effects of parasitics, the operating temperature, and the interaction of diode and switch. In addition, the transient waveforms of the SDC are simulated by the proposed model using dependent voltage and current sources with passive components. Besides, the approaches of obtaining model parameters from the datasheets are given and the modelling method is applicable to various semiconductors such Si insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), Si/SiC metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET), and GaN devices. Further, a multi-dimensional power loss table in a wide range of operating conditions can be obtained with fast speed and reasonable accuracy. The proposed approach is implemented in PSCAD/ Electromagnetic Transients including DC, EMTDC, (v4.6, Winnipeg, MB, Canada) and further verified by the hardware setups including different daughter boards for different devices.