Loss comparison of selected core magnetic materials operating at medium and high frequencies and different excitation voltages

Availability of new high-power semiconductor devices and the desire for developing power systems with higher penetrations of distributed generation have sparked significant research in power electronic converters. The non-sinusoidal nature of the current and voltage waveforms commonly present in power electronic converters makes it difficult to accurately evaluate the copper and core losses of components such as inductors and transformers operating at high and medium frequencies. The evaluation of the core losses for three soft magnetic materials (amorphous, ferrite and nanocrystalline) under different rectangular-voltage waveforms used in solid-state transformers, duty cycles and switching frequencies is the main aim of this work. The test setup comprises a 10 kVA Si IGBT-based three-level full-bridge converter used to generate the rectangular-voltage waveforms exciting the cores. The comparison based on the main material properties establishes criteria for proper core material selection when designing high-and medium-frequency transformers.