This work presents a 6.5-kV 1-kA SiC bipolar diode module for megawatt-range medium voltage converters. The study comprises a review of SiC devices and bipolar diodes, a description of the die and module technology, device characterization and modelling and benchmark of the device at converter level. The effects of current change rate, temperature variation, and different insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules for the switching cell, as well as parasitic oscillations are discussed. A comparison of the results with a commercial Si diode (6.5 kV and 1.2 kA) is included. The benchmark consists of an estimation of maximum converter output power, maximum switching frequency, losses and efficiency in a three level (3L) neutral point clamped (NPC) voltage-source converter (VSC) operating with SiC and Si diodes. The use of a model predictive control (MPC) algorithm to achieve higher efficiency levels is also discussed. The analysed diode module exhibits a very good performance regarding switching loss reduction, which allows an increase of at least 10 % in the output power of a 6-MVA converter. Alternatively, the switching frequency can be increased by 41 %.

This work presents a 6.5-kV 1-kA SiC bipolar diode module for megawatt-range medium voltage converters. The study comprises a review of SiC devices and bipolar diodes, a description of the die and module technology, device characterization and modelling and benchmark of the device at converter level. The effects of current change rate, temperature variation, and different insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules for the switching cell, as well as parasitic oscillations are discussed. A comparison of the results with a commercial Si diode (6.5 kV and 1.2 kA) is included. The benchmark consists of an estimation of maximum converter output power, maximum switching frequency, losses and efficiency in a three level (3L) neutral point clamped (NPC) voltage-source converter (VSC) operating with SiC and Si diodes. The use of a model predictive control (MPC) algorithm to achieve higher efficiency levels is also discussed. The analysed diode module exhibits a very good performance regarding switching loss reduction, which allows an increase of at least 10 % in the output power of a 6-MVA converter. Alternatively, the switching frequency can be increased by 41 %.:1 Introduction 2 State of the art of SiC devices and medium-voltage diodes 2.1 Silicon carbide diodes and medium-voltage modules 2.2 Medium-voltage power diodes 3 Characterization of the SiC PiN diode module 37 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Experimental setup 3.3 Experimental results: static behaviour 3.4 Experimental results: switching behaviour 3.5 Comparison with 6.5-kV silicon diode 3.6 Oscillations in the SiC diode 3.7 Summary 4 Comparison at converter level 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Power device modelling 4.3 Determination of maximum converter power rating 4.4 Analysis 4.5 Increased efficiency through model predictive control 4.6 Summary 5 Conclusion