Efficiency optimisation of a neutral point clamped inverter for electric vehicles by means of a variable DC input voltage and different power semiconductors

Author

Brueske, Stephan ; Fuchs, Friedrich Wilhelm

Author_Institution

Inst. of Power Electron., Univ. of Kiel, Kiel, Germany

fYear

2014

fDate

26-28 Aug. 2014

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

10

Abstract

The 3-level NPC is investigated for the application in electric vehicles for inverter operation. Two different optimisation approaches for the NPC will be investigated to increase the efficiency. For the first method, the DC link input voltage is controlled variable, fed by a DC/DC converter. The effect of the varied DC link voltage on the loss distribution and on the efficiency is presented. Secondly, the possibility to use IGBTs and Superjunction MOSFETs in one inverter (asymmetric combination) is studied and its effect on the efficiency is highlighted. A continuous and a discontinuous modulation are investigated for the asymmetric combination to show the influence on the loss distribution. Both optimisation methods show advantages regarding the NPC efficiency. The analysis is done by simulation and laboratory measurement.

Keywords

DC-DC power convertors; MOSFET circuits; automotive electronics; electric vehicles; insulated gate bipolar transistors; invertors; optimisation; power semiconductor devices; voltage control; DC link input voltage; DC-DC converter; IGBT; NPC efficiency; discontinuous modulation; electric vehicles; loss distribution; neutral point clamped inverter; power semiconductors; superjunction MOSFET; three-level NPC; Batteries; Insulated gate bipolar transistors; Inverters; MOSFET; Modulation; Switches; Switching loss; Conduction losses; Electric vehicle; Multilevel Inverter; Power converters for EV; Power inverters for EV; Super junction devices;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Power Electronics and Applications (EPE'14-ECCE Europe), 2014 16th European Conference on

Conference_Location

Lappeenranta

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/EPE.2014.6910941

Filename

6910941