MVDC microgrids enabled by 15kV SiC IGBT based flexible three phase dual active bridge isolated DC-DC converter

The Dual Active Bridge (DABC) dc-dc converter is an integral part of the recently popular Medium-Voltage (MV) dc micro-grid application due to its high-power density. The advent of 15kV SiC IGBT and 10kV SiC MOSFET, has enabled a non-cascaded MV and Medium-Frequency (MF) DABC converter which is expected to have higher MTBF than the cascaded H-bridge topology due to relatively small number of switches. A composite DABC three-level three-phase topology earlier proposed for MV-MF application, has dual secondary side bridges to meet the rated load conditions. The duty-ratio control of the primary and the independent operation of dual secondary bridges as a single active bridge, can be utilized to solve the light load ZVS problem. This paper presents flexible operating modes of this MV DABC for ZVS and higher efficiency. The MV DABC simulations are presented to bring out the advantages of this topology in wide range load and voltage-ratio conditions. This paper reports 8kV experimental validation of this DABC while using 15kV/40A SiC IGBTs on the MV side.