The development of high power density power converters has become an important topic in power electronics because of increasing demand in transportation applications including marine, aviation and vehicle system. The possibility for greater power densities due to absence of a DC link is made matrix converter topologies more attractive for these applications. Additionally, with the emerging SiC device technology, the operating switching frequency and temperature of the converter can be potentially increased. The extended switching frequency and temperature range provide opportunities to further improve the power density of the power converters. The aim of this thesis is to understand how SiC devices are different from the conventional Si devices and the effect these differences have on the design and performance of a matrix converter. Specific gate drive circuits are designed and implemented to fully utilize the high speed switching capabilities of these emerging semiconductor devices. A method to evaluate the conduction and switching losses and performance of Si and SiC power devices in the matrix converter circuit is developed. The developed method is used to compare power losses of matrix converters designed with different Si and SiC devices for a range of operating temperatures and switching frequencies. A design procedure for matrix converter input filters is proposed to fulfil power quality standard requirements and maximize the filter power density. The impact of the switching frequency on the input filter volume has also been considered in this work. The output waveform distortion due to commutation time in high switching frequency SiC matrix converters is also investigated and a three-step current commutation strategy is used to minimize the problem. Finally the influence of parasitic inductance on the behaviour of SiC power MOSFET matrix converters is investigated to highlight the challenges of high speed power devices.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:666915 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Safari, Saeed |
| Publisher | University of Nottingham |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28450/ |
Page generated in 0.0023 seconds