High-density system integration for medium power applications

Over the past ten years, there has been increased incorporation of electronic power processing into alternative, sustainable, and distributed energy sources, as well as energy storage systems, cars, airplanes, ships, homes, data centers, and the power grid. The goals have been to reduce the size, weight, and maintenance and operational costs of these power systems, while increasing overall energy efficiency, safety, and reliability. This paper summarizes some of the authors´ research efforts in the last four years on the improvements in power density and physical integration of power converters, mostly for vehicular applications. Several approaches to integration of active components into high-temperature modules are presented together with examples of the evaluation and modeling of 1.2 kV SiC JFET and MOSFET. Possible improvements in the power density through hybrid passive and active integration of an EMI filter and of an energy storage capacitor in single-phase PWM rectifier are also shown. Examples of converter integration for a 10 kW motor drive with active front-end using SiC devices operating at 250°C, and for paralleling three-phase boost rectifiers with interleaved PWM are presented.