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Electromagnetic Interference Issues of Power Electronics Systems With Wide Band Gap Semiconductor Devices
Electromagnetic Interference Issues of Power Electronics Systems With Wide Band Gap Semiconductor Devices
Electromagnetic Interference Issues of Power Electronics Systems With Wide Band Gap Semiconductor Devices
gap
I. INTRODUCTION
For several decades, Silicon (Si) based power electronics
switches have been used in many different low and high power
electronics systems. New developments in semiconductors
have allowed Si semiconductor technology to approach the
theoretical limits of the Si material but these switches cannot
fulfil new requirements such as operating at higher switching
frequencies with fast switching transients. To overcome these
limitations, new semiconductor materials for power device
applications are needed. Over the past two decades, significant
efforts and development have been performed on new
semiconductor materials called Wide Band Gap (WBG)
semiconductors, such as Silicon Carbide (SiC), Gallium Nitride
(GaN) due to their superior electrical and thermal performances
compared to silicon power switching devices [1]-[4].
Conducted and radiated Electromagnetic Interference
(EMI) emissions are major problems in power electronics
systems which produce undesirable effects on electronic
devices such as radio receivers, medical equipment,
communication systems and cause malfunctions and nonoperations in control systems [5, 6]. A main drawback of these
fast switching devices is EMI issue due to stray capacitances
and inductances in interconnections, cables and AC motors. In
modern power electronics systems, increasing power density
and decreasing cost and size of a system are market
requirements [7]-[10]. Switching losses, harmonics and EMI
are the key design factors which should be considered at a
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(a)
(a)
Inductance (mH)
105
(b)
Fig.2. (a) A boost converter with a high frequency inductor, (b) current
waveforms
104
103
102
10 6
10 7
Frequency (Hz)
(b)
107
(c)
Fig.1. (a) A high frequency model of an inductor; test and simulation results:
(b) magnitude, (c) phase
5947
(a)
I Ga
(a)
Rs
Ls
irect
I Gb
Cdc
I Gc
Cf
S a Sb S c
Rf
(b)
SiC
Si
Frequency (030MHz)
(b)
Fig.3. Modeling of leakage currents as two pulse patterns (a) time domain, (b)
frequency domain
(c)
t
isic = 4 I1 1 = 2 I1 t1 = 2isi . The spectral contents of these
4
two signals show (Fig. 3(b)) that the high frequency energy of
the leakage current generated by the SiC devices is higher than
the Si switches. It is also clear that WBG devices (SiC) can
operate at higher switching frequency and with fast switching
transient which can generate more high frequency noise than
the Si switches.
III. IMPACT OF WBG DEVICES ON PASSIVE COMPONENTS
Using WBG devices operating at high switching
frequencies can reduce the sizes of passive components inductors and capacitors - used in power electronics systems
and make it possible to have a very compact power electronics
system. The main advantages of WBG devices in these systems
are improving the efficiency and reducing the size of the
passive filters. A main drawback can be conducted and radiated
emission issues which need to be investigated.
In some topologies such as DC-DC converters and Active
Front End systems (Fig.4 (a)&(b)), the stray capacitance of the
inductor can generate significant leakage current due to dv/dt
across the inductor. WBG devices used in these applications
can increase switching frequency and decrease switching
Fig.4. Power electronics systems- (a) a single phase PFC system, (b) an
Active Front End and (c) a motor drive system with stay capacitances
connected to common ground (Protective Earth, PE)
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(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig.5. (a) A setup for the EMI measurement, (b) motor drive, (c) power
inverter modules SiC and Si
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(a)
97,0%
] 96,0%
[%
cy
n95,0%
e
ic
fif
E 94,0%
93,0%
92,0%
8600
10600
Power [W]
12600
14600
16600
(a)
(b)
98,0%
97,0%
Efficiency
96,0%
]
%
[ 95,0%
cy
n
e
i
icf 94,0%
fE
93,0%
Si IGBT inv. @ fsw=4kHz, 1125rpm
Si IGBT inv. @ fsw=8kHz, 1125rpm
92,0%
8600
10600
Power [W]
12600
14600
16600
(b)
Fig.7. Motor drive efficiency at different power and switching frequencies (a)
Si, (b) SiC
(c)
V. CONCLUSION
(d)
Fig.6. Black graph: SiC (dv/dt = 9-11 V/ns), Light blue graph: Si (dv/dt = 2-4
V/ns): (a) fsw = 4 kHz, (b) fsw = 8 kHz, (c) fsw = 16 kHz, (d) fsw =16 kHz, (d)
radiated emission noise (Blue: SiC & Yellow: Si)
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