Analysis of Inverter Loss Improvement According to Si-IGBT and SiC-MOSFET Utilization of 150kW Inverter for EV Propulsion

Recently, due to the commercialization of power semiconductors based on SiC (Silicon carbide) devices with high voltage operation, high frequency operation, and high temperature operation characteristics, there is growing interest in transition conventional Si device to SiC power semiconductors. In order to convert the widely used Si-based inverters to SiC-based inverters, it is necessary to quantitatively evaluate the inverter system improvement due to the use of Si or SiC device power semiconductors. In this paper, the efficiency comparison of a 150kW inverter for EV propulsion using Si-IGBT and SiC-MOSFET is carried out, and the system improvements due to the conversion of power semiconductors is analyzed. For accurate comparison, a Si-IGBT/SiC-MOSFET power module with the same specifications of 1200V, 600A is selected, and an inverter performance test over entire driving range is performed with only the power semiconductor and gate driver changed. Through driving cycle analysis based on inverter performance test results, it is verified that when switching from Si-IGBT to SiC-MOSFET, inverter energy loss is reduced by 26.3%.