High-Density Medium-Voltage SiC-based Modular Power Converters for Naval Applications-Challenges and Solutions-Slides

Abstract: SiC-enabled high-power modular converters for medium-voltage (MV) power distribution systems in naval applications have a great potential to achieve notably higher efficiency and power density than their Si predecessors. Such revolutionary improvement is built upon the resolution of critical challenges comprising gate driving, control and sensing, EMI, high-voltage insulation, and thermal management, in a bottom-up manner from the component level to the power-cell level and finally to the converter level.

This seminar presents systematic design solutions to tackle the aforementioned challenges. Enhanced gate drivers and their power supplies, a bi-directional auxiliary power network, and synchronous distribution control systems have been proposed to address low-power-level concerns; a switching-cycle control approach for passive component reduction, a shielded laminated dc-bus, and a partial-discharge-free insulation design method have been proposed to handle high-power-level issues. The electromagnetic interference, as an ubiquitous issue involved in all the designs above, has been carefully contained and mitigated by proposed shielding and coupling minimization techniques. All the solutions have been successfully validated on converter platforms operating continuously with switching transients up to 100 V/ns