4500 volt Si/SiC hybrid module qualification for modern megawatt scale wind energy inverters

Author

Erdman, William L. ; Grider, David ; VanBrunt, Edward

Author_Institution

Cinch LLC, Moraga, CA, USA

fYear

2014

fDate

13-15 Oct. 2014

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

6

Abstract

This paper discusses recent trends in wind turbine electrical architecture resulting from utility interconnect and public siting requirements. These trends together with constant need to reduce the cost-of-energy place a premium on wind turbine inverter efficiency. This need is addressed by the use of a medium voltage, three-level inverter with 4HN structure silicon carbide barrier diode located in the clamping diode location. A comparison with a conventional silicon PIN clamping diode is covered in detail.

Keywords

elemental semiconductors; invertors; power semiconductor diodes; silicon; silicon compounds; wide band gap semiconductors; wind power plants; wind turbines; 4HN structure silicon carbide barrier diode; Si-SiC; clamping diode location; cost-of-energy reduction; hybrid module qualification; medium voltage three-level inverter; modern megawatt scale wind energy inverters; public siting requirements; silicon PIN clamping diode; utility interconnect; voltage 4500 V; wind turbine electrical architecture; wind turbine inverter efficiency; Clamps; Inverters; Poles and towers; Silicon; Silicon carbide; Wind turbines; SiC; Wind turbine; barrier diode; medium voltage; silicon carbide; three-level inverter; wind energy;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications (WiPDA), 2014 IEEE Workshop on

Conference_Location

Knoxville, TN

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/WiPDA.2014.6964613

Filename

6964613