Electric Drive Technology Trends Challenges and Opportunities For Future Electric Vehicles

Electric Drive Technology
Trends, Challenges, and

Opportunities for Future
Electric Vehicles
This article covers the state of the art and emerging concepts in electric drivetrain
technologies used to facilitate the transition to electric road transport technologies.
By I QBAL H USAIN , Fellow IEEE, B URAK O ZPINECI , Fellow IEEE,
M D S ARIFUL I SLAM , Graduate Student Member IEEE,
E MRE G URPINAR , Senior Member IEEE, G UI -J IA S U , Senior Member IEEE,
W ENSONG Y U , Member IEEE, S HAJJAD C HOWDHURY , Member IEEE,
L INCOLN X UE , Senior Member IEEE, D HRUBO R AHMAN , Graduate Student Member IEEE,
AND R AJ S AHU , Member IEEE
ABSTRACT | The transition to electric road transport technolo- commercially available solutions in terms of materials, electric
gies requires electric traction drive systems to offer improved machine and inverter designs, maximum speed, component
performances and capabilities, such as fuel efficiency (in cooling, power density, and performance. The emerging mate-
terms of MPGe, i.e., miles per gallon of gasoline-equivalent), rials and technologies for power electronics and electric motors
extended range, and fast-charging options. The enhanced are presented, identifying the challenges and opportunities
electrification and transformed mobility are translating to a for even more aggressive designs to meet the need for next-
demand for higher power and more efficient electric trac- generation EVs. Some innovative drive and motor designs with
tion drive systems that lead to better fuel economy for a the potential to meet the DOE 2025 targets are also discussed.
given battery charge. To accelerate the mass-market adoption
KEYWORDS | Drive technology; electric machines; electric
of electrified transportation, the U.S. Department of Energy
vehicle (EV); heavy rare-earth free machines; hybrid EV (HEV);
(DOE), in collaboration with the automotive industry, has
traction inverter; wide bandgap (WBG) inverter.
announced the technical targets for light-duty electric vehi-
cles (EVs) for 2025. This article discusses the electric drive
technology trends for passenger electric and hybrid EVs with I. I N T R O D U C T I O N
The global number of electric vehicles (EVs) sold that
include both battery EVs (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid EVs
Manuscript received August 18, 2020; revised November 21, 2020; accepted
December 9, 2020. Date of publication January 8, 2021; date of current version
(PHEVs) exceeded the five million mark in 2019 with the
May 20, 2021. This work was supported in part by UT-Battelle LLC under ratio between BEVs and PHEVs tilting toward the former.
Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 and in part by North Carolina State University
through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract DE-EE0008705.
The adoption rate has been steadily increasing, taking only
(Corresponding author: Iqbal Husain.) six months for one million BEVs to be sold as opposed
Iqbal Husain, Md Sariful Islam, Wensong Yu, and Dhrubo Rahman are
with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina
to the five years that it took for the first million BEVs to
State University, Raleigh, NC 27606 USA (e-mail: ihusain2@ncsu.edu; be sold. Environmental concerns and energy challenges
mislam8@ncsu.edu; wyu2@ncsu.edu; drahman@ncsu.edu).
prompted the societal demand for clean, efficient, and
Burak Ozpineci, Emre Gurpinar, Gui-Jia Su, Shajjad Chowdhury, Lincoln
Xue, and Raj Sahu are with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Knoxville, TN sustainable vehicles for urban transportation. Traditional
37830 USA (e-mail: burak@ornl.gov; emre.gurpinar@ieee.org; sugj@ornl.gov;
original equipment manufacturers and new generation
chowdhuryms@ornl.gov; xuel@ornl.gov; sahur@ornl.gov).
manufacturers are responding to the demand with many
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JPROC.2020.3046112 models of varying ranges and features. In the past few
0018-9219 © 2021 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021 | P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE 1039
Authorized licensed use limited to: Indian Instt of Engg Science & Tech- SHIBPUR. Downloaded on March 08,2022 at 06:40:43 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
Husain et al.: Electric Drive Technology Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities for Future EVs
years, this drastic improvement in vehicle electrification

has coincided with a radical transformation of society’s
understanding of transportation in which autonomous
driving and mobility as a service have opened the door to
freedom of movement. These changes of improved electri-
fication and transformed mobility translate to a demand
for higher power and more efficient electric traction drive
systems that lead to better fuel economy for a given battery
charge. The recent evolution of wide bandgap (WBG)
semiconductor-based drives, with their capabilities of high- Fig. 1. Traction inverter along with its interfacing components and
controller.
frequency and high-temperature operation, is a catalyst to
increase the operating speed of traction machines. Wind-
ing, lamination, and permanent magnet (PM) material
developments in recent years are enabling the electric
motor design to push the boundaries for the maximum former is, by far, the most expensive component, account-
speed and power/torque density with design innovations. ing for around 50% of the drive cost. The power device
of choice adopted by the automotive industry since the
introduction of the first modern-day EV, EV1 in 1996, is the
A. Electric Drivetrain Targets Si-insulated-gate bipolar transistor (Si-IGBT), which is still
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in collabo- favored because of its cost, decent efficiency, and good
ration with the U.S. Council for Automotive Research, short-circuit capability of around 10 μs. Recent advances
has announced targets for electric passenger vehicles for in WBG devices, particularly SiC and GaN devices, promise
2025 in a roadmap developed in 2017 [1]. DOE aims significant power density and efficiency increases in trac-
to reach 33-kW/L power density, 300 000-mi/15-year life- tion inverter drives.
time, and $6/kW cost for a 100-kW electric traction drive A large dc-link capacitor (Cdc ) is used to reduce the
to enable a highly efficient, compact, reliable, and afford- ripple current and voltage generated due to the pulsewidth
able building platform for passenger vehicles. This is an modulated (PWM) operation of the inverter stage. These
88% reduction in volume and 25% reduction in cost while bulky capacitors used in automotive traction inverters are
doubling the target power and lifetime mileage compared large polypropylene film capacitors chosen for the working
with 2020 goals. For the inverter, a 100-kW integrated voltage (1.2–1.5 times the dc-link nominal voltage), root-
design with 100 kW/L at $2.70/kW is expected. This mean-square (rms) current, operating temperature, life-
represents an 18% cost reduction and 87% volume reduc- time, and parasitic inductance and resistance. The inverter
tion compared with 2020 goals. For the motor, the power power devices, shielded alternating-current (ac) cables,
density target is 50 kW/L at a cost of $3.30/kW, which and motor all have significant parasitic capacitances to the
represents an 89% reduction in volume and 30% reduction ground, which is the vehicle chassis. The high dv/dt due
in cost compared with 2020 goals. to each PWM switching event at the ac inverter terminals
To achieve these targets by 2025, the inverter compo- induces common-mode (CM) pulses to the ground, which
nents have to be integrated more intimately using power causes severe electromagnetic interference (EMI). CM fil-
modules with the latest WBG technology. New materials ters, an example of which is shown in Fig. 1, are used to
and optimization technologies will also be required to mitigate the EMI. The number of CM choke and capacitors
reduce volume, while new thermal management tech- allowed on the dc bus is limited by the SAE International
niques will be applied to take the heat out more efficiently. Standard J1772 for dc charging.
For the motor, high-power-density topologies and high- The parasitic capacitance of the traction electric motor
efficiency materials will help reach the targets. The rest of between its winding and chassis ground (denoted by Cp2
this article describes some of the recent power electronics in Fig. 1) can be significant and is typically between 5 and
and electric motors technologies that are being proposed 25 nF. In systems in which the inverter and the motor are
to accelerate the adoption of electrified transportation. separated by a distance and connected through shielded
ac cables, there will be additional parasitic capacitances.
These capacitances and the dv/dt from the PWM voltage
B. Trends in Inverter Design waveforms of the inverter will result in significant CM
Traction inverters used in BEVs/HEVs are dominated currents, such as motor interturn currents and bearing
by the three-phase voltage-source inverter (VSI) topology currents, which, essentially, has to be supplied by the
because of its high efficiency, low cost, and simple control inverter. Exceedingly high dv/dt can result in insulation
requirements. The inverter along with the filters, gate damage of the motor windings. Although an output dv/dt
drive, sensors, and the controller is shown in Fig. 1. The filter can be placed, the best solution is a tightly coupled
two key components of the inverter drive are the power packaging, such as mounting the inverter directly to the
devices and the direct-current (dc)-link capacitors; the motor housing, as has been done in the Chevy Volt [2].
1040 P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE | Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021
Table 1 Representative Set of Traction Inverters Used in Commercially Available EVs/HEVs
The key parameters and specifications of select traction of traction inverters directly into the machine housing
inverters are given in Table 1. All the above example effectively reduces the mass, volume, and cost of the
inverters are built with Si-based IGBTs, except for Tesla system.
Model 3, which uses SiC metal–oxide–semiconductor field-
effect transistors (MOSFETs) as the power devices for the
inverter. Among the IGBT-based solutions, Tesla Model S C. Trends in High-Speed Electric Machine Design
70D, introduced in 2012, also has a unique feature of being The electric motor for propulsion in the EVs/HEVs is
built with 36 TO-247 discrete IGBTs, whereas all other desired to have a high starting torque to meet acceleration
inverters are built with IGBT modules. Among the vehicles requirements, high power density to reduce volume, and
listed in Table 1, only the Toyota Prius 2016 model, which high efficiency to extend the battery range. The candidate
is an HEV, has a dc–dc boost converter in front of the motor drive should also have a wide constant power speed
VSI. Modern EVs do not have this boost converter for cost range (CPSR) to facilitate a single-gear transmission stage
savings, and also they do not have to keep the efficiency that would help improve the transmission power density
of the electric drive high. A few takeaways from Table 1 and simplify its controls. However, the power density of
are the nominal dc-link voltage of 400 V for BEVs and the electric machine has to be sacrificed to achieve a
PHEVs, the maximum fundamental frequency of 1200 Hz, wider CPSR; in addition, the wide CPSR would also lead
and the best-reported power density of 30.1 kW/L for to an increase in the motor drive power requirements.
the Tesla Model S 70D inverter. The maximum funda- Flexible drive control, high reliability, fault tolerance, and
mental frequency is limited by the maximum inverter low acoustic noise are also essential features for the electric
PWM switching frequency of IGBT-based solutions where motor drive unit for a BEV/HEV application. The recent
a PWM frequency that is around an order of magnitude BEVs and HEVs primarily employ two types of machines: ac
higher is needed for an adequate motor current controller induction machines and interior PM (IPM) machines. The
bandwidth. IPM synchronous motor (IPMSM) using NdFeB magnets
With the advent of SiC technology, 800-V nominal dc- has become the design choice of traction electric machines
link voltage is being considered for passenger vehicles primarily because of the unparalleled power/torque den-
to provide system-level benefits to the EV powertrain. sity and efficiency that can be achieved to meet the
A higher dc-link voltage offers mass savings opportunities demanding requirements of an electric traction drivetrain.
across the vehicle, which translates to a better mileage The rotor structure is also robust since the magnets are
range for the same battery capacity. Higher voltage levels buried inside the rotor providing inherent magnet reten-
mean that the cables have to carry less current, which tion. Although the cost is high for IPM machines because
would reduce mass. The reliability of dc-link capacitors can of the use of rare-earth and heavy rare-earth materials,
also be increased in higher voltage, lower current invert- they are preferred because no other machine can match
ers by avoiding the need to parallel the film capacitors. the power density of IPMSMs. However, there are efforts
Traction inverters with high-power ratings (100–500 kW) to design IPMs with nonheavy rare-earth (HRE) magnet
are expected in the future as more BEV models are intro- materials to match the performance of those that are
duced and as the fast-charging infrastructure expands. The common in today’s BEVs.
overarching design goal for traction inverters is enhancing From a motor controls’ perspective, the PM machines
high efficiency and reliability while maintaining low cost, without the rotor cage have low inertia that helps the
volume, and mass. To achieve higher power density and electrical response time although the induction motor elec-
reduced weight, the trend is toward higher switching trical response characteristics will be the fastest because
frequency, use of WBG semiconductor devices, and tightly of the smaller electrical time constant determined by
integrated packaging with advanced thermal management the motor’s leakage inductances. With a higher power
systems and materials. The appealing features of high- density, the IPMSM is smaller in size than an induction
temperature and low-loss operation of SiC devices open up motor with the same power rating. IPMSMs are more
opportunities for integrated motor drives. Manufacturing efficient and easier to cool because of the absence of
Table 2 Representative Set of Electric Machines Used in Commercially Available EVs/HEVs
the dc-link voltage to accommodate the higher back-

electromotive forces (EMFs) of higher speed machines.
The limitation on maximum speed comes from the high-
frequency motor losses and the drive and transmission
constraints. The CPSR for the available EV/HEV motors has
been in the range of 3–4.
The high-speed electric machine is a viable option
approach for increasing the BEV powertrain drive power
density although the approach burdens the transmission
system and its design. An alternative approach to the high-
speed electric machine path for BEV applications is the
Fig. 2. Copper and magnet mass distributions of IPM motors in
direct-drive in-wheel (IW) electric machine that is also
production vehicles.
being actively pursued by several manufacturers. One of
the configurations for the IW approach is the axial flux
machine that has the potential to offer the highest torque
density as has been demonstrated by the YASA and General
rotor copper loss compared with the induction machines. Motors prototypes [8], [9]. However, the more attractive
Induction motors have lower cost and zero cogging torque solution for an IW configuration from the manufacturing
because of the absence of PMs. Induction motors can point of view is the radial flux configuration [10], [11].
sustain a higher peak stator current at several times the The advantages of the IW machines are increased space
rated current without the danger of demagnetizing the for passenger and battery pack, individual motor control
magnets. at each wheel providing better ride and performance, and
The key specifications of electric machines used in the elimination of the mechanical gears and transmission.
production BEVs/HEVs in recent years are summarized There are also several concerns that require attention for
in Table 2 [3]–[7]. All the machines listed in Table 2 the mass adoption of IW direct-drive machines. These
are IPMSMs except for the Tesla Model S 60, which is include management of unsprung mass, torque distur-
an induction machine. The design trend over the years bance due to faults, and requirement of a larger amount
has been to increase the number of poles and the max- of PM material to achieve high torque at low speed, which
imum speed to increase the torque and power density would increase the cost. The concerns are quite challeng-
of these machines since this will help with packaging ing for IW direct drives, which makes the high-speed, low-
within the vehicle system platform and improving the fuel torque machines with mechanical gear the predominant
efficiency. A high-pole-count design reduces the end turn choice in the commercially available BEVs.
length and the number of magnet materials, which helps The maximum operating speed and pole number combi-
increase efficiency and reduces the cost, respectively. The nation in production BEVs/HEVs translates to a maximum
motor designs have also progressed toward reducing the fundamental frequency of 1200 Hz. The constraint on
copper-to-magnet mass ratio in the higher power density the motor fundamental frequency also comes from the
machines, as shown in Fig. 2. Higher maximum speed bandwidth requirement of the current controller supplied
operation helps increase the power density and reduce by the IGBT-based inverter drives whose maximum PWM
the system mass although the burden then falls on the frequency is around 10 kHz. The bandwidth constraint
transmission gear, which must proportionally increase in will be alleviated once the industry adopts WBG-based
gear ratio to match the motor speed with the vehicle drives, which offers the opportunity for a much higher
wheel speed. The design trend has also been to increase PWM frequency.
Fig. 3. IPM rotors. (a) Double-V-shape in Chevy Bolt 2016 [3]. (b) V-shape in Tesla Model 3 2017 [4]. (c) U-shape in Toyota Prius 2017 [5].
The desired performances of traction electric machines MMF harmonics [14], which creates high core loss and
with high power density, high efficiency, and low-torque magnet loss. The third winding option is the hairpin
ripple with negligible cogging torque are achieved through winding, which has a better slot fill factor, power density,
a comprehensive rotor and stator design. On the rotor overload capability, and thermal performance compared
side, three variants of rotor designs are common for IPM with the stranded conductor–based winding. Hairpin/bar
machines used in traction applications: V-shape, double- conductors are present in GM designs and the Toyota
V-shape, and U-shape, which are shown in Fig. 3. Each Prius 2017 model. The downside of hairpin winding is
of the designs has its advantages and disadvantages [12]. the ac conductor loss, especially during high-speed/high-
Generally, the double V-shape rotor has the highest torque frequency operation [15], and the output power decreases
density and efficiency but has higher magnet losses, which at a faster rate beyond the base speed of the machine.
burdens the thermal management. The magnet utilization Considering the pros and cons, the preferred winding
is the best for V-shape rotors but would have relatively choice for the traction motors has been the stranded
lower corner speeds than the other two design types conductor with distributed windings. Several stators of
due to higher no-load voltage. The U-shape is a tradeoff different EVs/HEVs are presented in Fig. 4.
between the V- and double-V designs that offer some For the machine design, slot/pole/phase q is a unifying
design flexibility. parameter that incorporates several constraints of motor
On the stator side, the winding choices are between design with respect to maximum fundamental frequency,
distributed versus concentrated and between stranded ver- high-speed losses, and mode order for noise, vibration,
sus hairpin. The distributed windings create sinusoidal and harshness (NVH) performance. In general, the greatest
airgap flux density or have a minimum presence of har- common denominator between slot and pole numbers
monic contents in their magnetomotive force (MMF). The [GCD (slot, pole)] is the dominant vibration mode order.
distributed windings can be divided into two categories: The higher mode orders are less problematic for NVH
single-layer winding and double-layer winding (two-phase performance because the core deformation is inversely
winding can share the slot). The double-layer distributed proportional to the fourth-order of mode order [16]. In the
winding has fewer harmonic contents compared with the industry, slot/pole/phase q = 2 is the most common (seven
single-layer winding. Also, the distributed winding-based out of ten motors in Table 2 have q = 2) because it is a
IPM machines have higher reluctance torque than the reasonable compromise to limit the stator cost, high-speed
concentrated winding-based IPM machines. However, con- losses, the maximum fundamental frequency to 1.2 kHz,
centrated winding, which is used in the Honda Accord, has and the minimum mode order to 8.
the advantage of short end turn lengths, higher fill factor, The power density of an electric machine
and modular structure [13], but it suffers from unwanted strongly depends on the effectiveness of the heat
Fig. 4. Stator windings. (a) BMW i3 2016 [5]. (b) Toyota Prius 2017 [5]. (c) Honda Accord 2005 [3]. (a) Double-layer winding. (b) Hairpin
winding (active length: 60 mm). (c) Concentrated winding.
extraction method. Forced liquid cooling is the popular

choice for traction electric machines. Among different
forced liquid-cooling methods, the housing water jacket
cooling method is the most common cooling approach. The
typical cooling fluid is a 50% water/50% ethylene–glycol
mixture. In the water jacket method, cooling channels
are situated in a thermally conductive frame [17] at the
outer surface of the stator. The heat generated in the coils,
stator core, and rotor core is initially transferred to the
housing jacket through conduction and then moved to
ambient via convection of the cooling fluid. Even though
the housing water jacket is efficient to cool down the
coil, it is inadequate to dissipate the heat generated in
the end-winding because of the high thermal resistance
between the source and the sink. Therefore, a need exists
to develop an efficient end-winding cooling technique in Fig. 5. Specific on-resistance of a unipolar device drift region
conjunction with a housing water jacket to increase the based on Baliga’s figure of merit [20].
electric machine’s power density.
II. T R A C T I O N I N V E R T E R D R I V E
Advanced power devices, novel materials, new capacitor
variants, and application-specific heat sinks provide the resistance. The performance of higher voltage SiC devices,
opportunity to significantly boost the power density and at 3.3, 6.5, and 10 kV, is not yet commercially avail-
performance of traction inverter drives although they bring able from multiple suppliers due to market challenges
many design challenges that need to be addressed. In this but are presented as promising solutions for high-voltage
section, the component developments and features are pre- systems [19].
sented along with the design challenges and solutions for GaN devices emerged into the low-voltage (<600 V)
the next-generation high-power-density traction inverters. power device market, with lateral enhancement-mode
high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) structure, on a
Si substrate. The 2-D electron gas formed by a GaN-
A. Power Semiconductor Devices AlGaN layer in an HEMT provides excellent switching and
Power semiconductor devices based on WBG and ultra- conduction performance, and the Si substrate provides a
WBG (UWBG) materials are considered to be the dis- competitive device cost in comparison with Si MOSFETs.
ruptive technology for high-performance power electronic As shown in Fig. 5, the vertical GaN outperforms the SiC
systems. The superior material properties of WBG (SiC and Si counterparts in terms of specific ON -resistance [21].
and GaN), such as high-bandgap Eg , breakdown field However, the lateral structure limits the development of
Ec , saturation velocity vs , and thermal conductivity λ, high-voltage HEMTs with low ON -state resistance due to
enable the development of power semiconductor devices lateral blocking and low thermal conductivity of the Si
that can have increased power handling capabilities with substrate. It should also be noted that lateral devices with
smaller sizes and reduced losses in comparison with well- higher blocking voltage will occupy a larger area in the
established unipolar and bipolar Si-based devices. The wafer, which will lead to a lower number of devices per
specific ON -resistance of a unipolar active power semi- wafer manufactured that increases the cost. On the other
conductor (e.g., MOSFETs) drift region based on differ- hand, the high cost of the GaN substrate limits the com-
ent semiconductor materials is presented in Fig. 5. WBG mercialization of vertical GaN devices despite the fact that
power devices can enable highly efficient power electronic high performance is validated in high-voltage applications.
systems with increased switching frequency and power Vertical GaN is expected to be a competitive alternative to
density. Furthermore, UWBG (diamond, Ga2 O3 ) materials SiC above the 900-V blocking class.
can take the power device performance beyond the limits The system-level benefits of WBG devices accelerated
of WBG-based devices and enable high-voltage (≥10 kV) the development of UWBG devices, based on gallium
unipolar devices for various applications, such as motor oxide (Ga2 O3 ), which has almost 4.4 times higher energy
drives and transmission and distribution systems. bandgap and 26.6 times higher breakdown field than
SiC devices have been identified as the key solu- Si. These properties make Ga2 O3 an excellent candidate
tions for high-switching-frequency, high-voltage, and for high-temperature, high-voltage power devices, as pre-
high-temperature applications since the beginning of the sented in Fig. 5. However, the thermal conductivity of
century [18]. Currently, there are commercially available Ga2 O3 is at least five times less than Si and 16 times less
vertical SiC MOSFET and diode dies from multiple sup- than SiC and is foreseen as the main barrier for the appli-
pliers up to 1.7-kV blocking voltage and 13-mΩ ON -state cation of Ga2 O3 in high-power applications. The recent
In EV applications, liquid-cooled heat sinks are commonly

used with a 50%–50% water–ethylene–glycol mix as the
coolant with 65 ◦ C inlet temperature. WBG power elec-
tronics also provide the opportunity for sharing a single
cooling loop of 105 ◦ C for multiple powertrain com-
ponents, thereby eliminating the need for an additional
65 ◦ C or 80 ◦ C cooling loops and simplifying the thermal
management system. Some commercial SiC modules use
direct substrate cooling (by eliminating the base plate)
Fig. 6. Illustration of a conventional power module using a
DBC-based substrate (TIM: thermal interface material).
to improve thermal performance; some examples are Infi-
neon Easy 1B and Semikron MiniSKiiP modules [24]. All
these packages used to manufacture SiC-based modules
were initially designed for Si-IGBT devices. The advantages
development of vertical Ga2 O3 diodes shows promising of these packages are low cost, high maturity of the design,
results for future power electronic applications. and easy adoption by design engineers. However, they
do not meet the needs of the high-performance power
electronics packaging for WBG devices because of high
B. Integrated Power Modules parasitic inductance for single-layer conductor layout and
Power semiconductor modules used in inverters are high thermal impedance due to multimaterial layers in
responsible for electric power transfer between the source between the device and the heat sink.
and the load. The efficiency of such systems has improved To overcome the challenges of the commercial power
considerably because of recent advancements in WBG- modules, several high-power-density power electronics
based power semiconductor devices, such as SiC, MOS- packaging architectures have been proposed by acad-
FETs, and GaN HEMTs. However, despite attaining high emia and industry. GE Global Research has proposed an
efficiencies, a significant amount of power is dissipated in embedded power module structure approach called “GE
a small area because of the increased power demand from Power Overlay” (POL) [25]. Siemens has also proposed
the electrical load, the increased power density of power an embedded power module structure called “Siemens
modules, and the reduced chip size. Therefore, the per- SiPLIT” [26], as shown in Fig. 7(a).
formance of the materials used for packaging, integration Delphi has developed a bespoke double-sided planar
of power modules, and design of thermal management module for SiC devices based on paralleled SiC MOS-
systems have emerged as focal points of the next gener- FET dies sandwiched between two DBC substrates [27],
ation of power electronic systems, especially in application as shown in Fig. 7(b). Unlike the other solutions pre-
domains related to EVs [22]. sented earlier, this structure allows double-sided cooling
The illustration of a conventional power module cross but accommodates only one switch (five dies in parallel
section is shown in Fig. 6, where various components of per switch) per module.
the structure are highlighted. The structure is composed The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has also
of different materials, such as aluminum for bond wires, developed a double-sided power module architecture tar-
copper for the electrical terminals, and ceramic-based geted for WBG devices [28]. The planar-bond-all structure
direct-bonded copper substrate (DBC). This multilayered, of the proposed architecture is shown in Fig. 7(c). The
multimaterial-based structure has limited heat extraction package features sandwiching of power semiconductor
capabilities because of layer count and limited lateral heat switches between two DBC substrates and using copper
spreading. shims to eliminate wire bonds for the power loop. Two
SiC MOSFET-based power modules are offered by major cold plates (coolers) are directly bonded to the outside of
device and module manufacturers, such as Infineon, Wolf- these substrates, allowing double-sided integrated cooling.
speed, ROHM, and Semikron for a variety of circuit topolo- The enclosed area of the main current loop in this new
gies. Operating temperatures of these modules are limited interconnection configuration is reduced dramatically with
to 150 ◦ C–175 ◦ C, with a structure based on the illus- the replacement of wire bonds with copper shims. The
tration in Fig. 6. The commercial SiC dies are rated up elimination of wire bonds leads to a significant reduction
to 175 ◦ C to eliminate reliability issues observed at the in electrically parasitic inductance and resistance, allowing
gate interface and body diode at elevated temperatures for full use of WBG switches.
[23]. Although the maximum allowable temperature in As an alternative to DBC for improved thermal per-
WBG-based modules is not higher than Si-based modules, formance in SiC-based power modules, ORNL, in col-
the temperature dependence of the electrical performance laboration with Momentive and Henkel, has developed
of SiC MOSFETs is less than the Si counterparts. Therefore, and experimentally validated an advanced graphite-core
using SiC MOSFETs in traction drive systems can reduce insulated metal substrate (IMS) substrate. This sub-
the cooling requirements by elevating the operating device strate is based on IMS technology, where the thermally
temperature without compromising system performance. annealed pyrolytic graphite (TPG)-encapsulated copper
thus, avoids many of the challenges. In addition, soft turn-

off is more important for SiC MOSFETs to prevent destruc-
tively high spike voltages due to their faster switching
speeds.
In the area of reliability assessment, understanding
the failure modes and mechanisms in WBG devices is a
critical ongoing effort particularly since these are likely
to be used at elevated temperatures and higher fields
than their Si-IGBT counterparts. JEDEC, the global stan-
dards body for the microelectronics industry, has a dedi-
cated committee JC-70: Wide Bandgap Power Electronic
Conversion Semiconductors to pursue WBG standards
activities. JEDEC JESD-22 standard for reliability assess-
ment of packaged devices and AEC-Q101 (AEC stands
for Automotive Electronics Council) for stress assessment
in discrete devices are currently being used by suppli-
ers to qualify WBG parts for automotive applications.
In Europe, the power module qualification is standardized
Fig. 7. High-power-density modules. (a) Siemens SiPLIT POL

structure. (b) Delphi Viper structure. (c) ORNL planar-bond-all
structure.
core replaces the solid copper core. The graphite mater-

ial contains millions of stacked graphene layers, showing
excellent thermal conductivity and very low mass density,
thus increasing overall thermal performance and decreas-
ing the overall weight of the substrate. The structure of the
graphite-core IMS is shown in Fig. 8. Graphite-embedded
substrates can provide increased current density for SiC
MOSFETs regardless of the thermal management strategy
employed to cool the substrate. Using this technology
improves the current density of the power module by 10%
[see Fig. 8(c)].
SiC MOSFETs demand more stringent requirements than
those for Si-IGBTs for short-circuit protection. Compared
with Si-IGBTs, SiC MOSFETs behave differently under
short-circuit and overcurrent faults and have higher short-
circuit current densities and smaller thermal capacitances
due to smaller die sizes than similarly rated Si-IGBTs.
These lead to a large difference in short-circuit withstand
time, 2–4 μs for SiC MOSFETs versus 10 μs for Si-IGBTs.
Therefore, SiC MOSFETs require not only a much faster
response time but also higher noise immunities for protec-
tion circuits. These stringent requirements present design
challenges for applying the desaturation-based protection Fig. 8. (a) TPG-embedded copper core. (b) TPG-embedded IMS.
circuits widely used for Si-IGBTs. One alternative is to use (c) Current density comparison of SiC MOSFET with different
some of the MOSFET cells for drain current-sensing and, substrates [28].
under AQG 324: Automotive Power Module Qualification

maintained by the European Center for Power Electron-
ics (ECPE).
C. DC-Link Capacitors
Capacitors are one of the essential passive components
used in a traction inverter to keep the dc-link voltage con-
stant, suppress high-frequency current components, and
regulate current flow. The vast majority of these capacitors
are used in a VSI to decouple the load from the supply; Fig. 9. Impedance variation of film, MLCC, and PLZT-based
thus, a capacitor absorbs a large ripple current due to the capacitors.
inverter switching action. The dc-link capacitor for a three-

phase VSI can take up to 60% of the rms load current [29].
Since the capacitor bank must store a certain amount of
energy to maintain a stable dc voltage level, the dc-link be classified into three categories: class 1, class 2, and
capacitor takes up a substantial amount of space, limiting lead–lanthanum–zirconate–titanate (PLZT)-based capaci-
the inverter’s power density. tor. The class 1 dielectric has a low temperature and a dc
Several types of capacitors can be used in EV trac- bias dependence; thus, they can be used in an application
tion applications, which can be divided into two primary in which constant capacitance is required (e.g., resonant
groups: electrostatic and electrolytic capacitors. Although tank and filter applications). The class 2 ceramic capac-
the electrolytic capacitors are the most popular choice for itors have much higher energy density than the class 1
conventional motor drive applications, their short lifespan, ceramic capacitors; thus, class 2 ceramic capacitors can
limited current conduction capability, and low-frequency be a suitable choice for dc-link applications. The most
operation make them untenable for use as dc-link capaci- common class 2 dielectric is barium titanate, which is
tors in EV inverters. a ferroelectric dielectric material, and its parameters are
In contrast, electrostatic capacitors have nonpolar con- highly temperature-dependent. Moreover, the capacitance
struction in which plastic films and ceramics are used as of class 2 ceramic capacitors decreases rapidly with the
dielectrics, while a variety of materials are used as elec- dc bias voltage. Reliability issues are also associated with
trodes. Among all the electrostatic capacitors, the polymer ceramic capacitors; the ceramic dielectric material is rigid
film is used as the dc-link capacitor for electric drive appli- and can crack from mechanical and thermal stresses, thus
cation because of its reliability, high-current conduction creating a short-circuit between dc terminals. Therefore,
capability, high-frequency operation, and lower losses com- class 2 multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) have not
pared with aluminum electrolytic capacitors. Film capac- gained popularity for safety-critical applications, such as
itors, which use plastic/polymers as the dielectric, have EV traction inverters.
very low-temperature dependence; thus, the change in the The PLZT-based ceramic capacitors show characteris-
dielectric characteristic is minimal. The relative permittiv- tics slightly different from the class 2 ceramic capacitors;
ity of these dielectrics is low (e.g., 2–3), and film capacitors unlike ferroelectric materials, capacitance increases with
are, therefore, bulkier than electrolytic capacitors for the the dc bias [32]. The PLZT capacitor uses an antifer-
given capacitance. Furthermore, the operating tempera- roelectric dielectric material that can withstand higher
ture of commercially available film capacitors is low (i.e., currents and temperatures. PLZT capacitors have better
105 ◦ C) and has a limit on the self-temperature rise reliability since they use the series connection of two
(10 ◦ C–20 ◦ C) [30], thus necessitating an active cooling MLCC geometries in one component, meaning that the
strategy. capacitor will be operational in the event of a crack in
Capacitors based on the glass-based dielectric show the dielectric. In [33], the results of highly accelerated
promise to overcome the challenges associated with life testing are presented comparing class 2 and PLZT-
achieving a high breakdown voltage using alkali-free glass based capacitors, where the PLZT-based capacitors show
material [31]. However, the material itself is rigid and a much lower failure rate. The PLZT-based capacitor also
can crack from mechanical and thermal stresses. Moreover, shows a decrease in capacitance after a certain tempera-
the dielectric constant of the material is not high enough ture, thus allowing natural current balancing among the
to compete with some of the ceramic-based capacitors. parallel branches. In addition, the self-resonant point of
Ceramic capacitors, which use ceramic dielectrics with these capacitors is also at a higher frequency, thus allowing
high dielectric constants, are promising candidates to these capacitors to be used for high-frequency applications
improve the power density of EV traction inverters. These (see Fig. 9).
capacitors have a much higher rms current rating and The use of ceramic-based capacitors increases the
can withstand higher temperatures than film capacitors. inverter’s power density but also imposes a challenge
Depending on dielectric materials, ceramic capacitors can on electrical performance. Unlike the film and aluminum
E. Inverter Design Optimization
WBG devices are generally desired to be operated at

high frequencies to realize the high power density of the
traction drive by reducing the size of passive components.
Under fast switching conditions, the impact of high di/dt
on the parasitic inductances cannot be ignored, especially
in multichip high-power modules. The challenges are to
Fig. 10. Segmented traction drive system.
be overcome through design optimization while evaluating
the adverse effects using advanced analytical tools.
1) Inverter Loop Inductance Minimization: In inverter

applications, the parasitic commutation loop inductance
electrolytic capacitors, the ceramic capacitor cannot be
determines the magnitude of the voltage spike across the
produced as a large block, mainly because of the brittle
switches at turn-off. High commutation loop inductance
nature of ceramic materials; thus, several hundreds of
leads to large voltage spikes, which can cause device
them will be required for the dc-link application. There-
breakdown. Traditionally, copper-based laminated busbars
fore, proper packaging of this large number of capacitors
have been the go-to solution to ensure high efficiency and
is needed; otherwise, it may introduce current asymmetry
safe operation in traction applications, and the operating
among the parallel capacitor branches that can lead to
frequency was generally limited to 10–20 kHz. With the
thermal runaway. Moreover, additional layout inductance
increased operating frequencies used in the WBG systems
will lead to significant voltage overshoot across semi-
and the attendant increase in signal edge rates, the busbar
conductor devices. Special care is needed when pack-
design plays a critical role in traction applications for
aging these large numbers of capacitors for EV traction
system performance, safety, efficiency, and electromagnetic
applications.
emissions.
The commutation loop in the inverter is established
D. Segmented Inverter for Capacitor by the laminated dc bus and the dc-link capacitor bank.
Volume Reduction More than one commutation loop may exist in the inverter,
A design approach for reducing the capacitor volume as shown in Fig. 12 [36]. The inverter’s dc bus voltage
is by using different inverter topologies, such as the seg- is constrained by the voltage overshoot resulting from the
mented inverter [34], [35], which can significantly reduce energy stored in the parasitic inductance (Lp ) seen by the
the dc-link ripple current and capacitance requirement. power module’s drain and source power terminals during
Fig. 10 illustrates the modifications of a standard VSI- turn-off. This parasitic inductance, combined with higher
based drive (see Fig. 1) to the segmented drive system. The di/dt, negatively affects the power module voltage and
inverter switches and motor stator windings are, respec-
tively, separated into two sets of switches (indicated in
orange and blue in the figure) and two sets of windings
(a1, b1, and c1) and (a2, b2, and c2). Each group of
switches (orange or blue) is connected as a three-phase
inverter bridge and connects to one set of the stator wind-
ings, forming an independent drive unit. Because switches
in high-power inverter modules are comprised of multiple
switches and diode dies connected in parallel, only minor
modifications to the switch connections are needed to form
the segmented arrangement.
Fig. 11 shows the plots of a comparison of the simulated
capacitor ripple currents at various levels of power factors
versus inverter modulation index for the standard and
segmented inverters. The capacitor ripple currents are
normalized against the rms value of the phase current. The
plots show a more than 50% reduction in peak capacitor
ripple currents with the segmented inverter, which results
in the need for smaller capacitors. Between using newer
smaller volume capacitor technologies and new inverter
topologies that do not require large dc-link capacitances, Fig. 11. Comparison of the simulated capacitor ripple currents at
the overall capacitor size can be reduced to improve the various power factors versus inverter modulation index for the
inverter power density. standard and segmented drives.
layers or changing the order of stacking the laminated

layers.
3) Components are to be distributed symmetrically for a
balanced design of the commutation loops.
With an increased demand for high-power-density
power converters, busbar form-factor and interconnection
with power modules play significant roles in the overall
system-level design. A higher level of the power module
Fig. 12. DC-power loop current paths for a half-bridge power and passive component packaging and integration can be
module [36]. achieved by using a PCB-based busbar architecture com-
pared with a laminated busbar. The high-density packaging
is more convenient in a stacked-layer design approach to
increase the power density of the overall inverter [39].
current use in two ways. First, the voltage overshoot Routing of high current conductors through a multilayer
PCB reduces the overall volume while adding flexibility.
ΔVovershoot = −Lp · di/dt (1) The multilayer busbar with thick copper traces can be
designed to minimize the overall loop inductance, and
this also enables the mounting of the dc-bus and local
adds to the dc bus voltage, which constrains it to an snubber capacitors in a symmetric layout using the mini-
artificially low value because of the safety margin. Second, mum amount of space. The power modules are positioned
the module current must also be limited or slowed down such that the copper traces connect directly onto the
during turn-off to limit the di/dt, which will result in module pins. Because of the high bus voltage, the PCB
additional switching losses penalizing the device thermally design should adhere to various standards (such as UL-
and the overall system efficiency. 796 and IPC-2221a specifications) to withstand voltages
2) Inverter Busbars: The dc bussing is a multiphysical in the range of several kilo-Volts between the conductive
design problem in the electrical, thermal, and mechani- elements on the board. Furthermore, thermal stress needs
cal domains. Electrically, the dc bus needs to be a low to be considered so that the temperature rise during oper-
equivalent series resistance (ESR) (i.e., high-conductivity ation does not exceed the capability of the PCB material.
material and large cross-sectional conduction area) and In the PCB busbar design shown in Fig. 13, minimization
low equivalent series inductance (ESL) (i.e., thin and wide of the loop inductance is addressed by selecting a vertical
planes) structure. The main dc bussing design parame- stacking architecture with the power planes distributed
ters affecting ESR and ESL include copper thickness and in a specific order [36]. For the dc side, the positive
the width and length of the dc+ and dc− planes and and negative power planes are stacked in pairs with
the separation distance between them. Thermally, a low- maximum overlapping between the positive and negative
temperature rise (e.g., less than 80 ◦ C from room temper- layers. Designing the busbar in this way fully uses the
ature) due to the maximum expected rms current passing magnetic coupling existing between the PCB conducting
through the structure is required. Mechanically, a high layers, thus enabling effective flux cancellation. In the
level of robustness against normal shock and vibration case of ac planes, the phases do not have any vertical
during use is necessary. overlap with each other. The overlap between the ac
The laminated busbar is widely used in high-power and dc planes is minimized to ensure that the parasitic
and integrated converters for its low parasitic inductance capacitance between the dc and ac power planes is low,
advantage to restrain the voltage overshoot, EMI, and thereby reducing the busbar’s contribution to the switching
switching losses [37], [38]. In the design approach, effort losses. Also, having a pair of dc+ and dc− layers close
must be made to ensure that magnetic field cancellation to the module facilitated lowering the commutation loop
is maximized, thereby minimizing the parasitic inductance inductance. The shielding layer, which is simply a layer
of the bussing system seen by the power module. The of copper, provides a path of the induced currents and
following design guidelines are applied to achieve a low minimizes the loop inductance as well. Taking advantage
and balanced inductance structure. of the planar architecture of the inverter, dc-link capacitors
(typically film type) have been mounted very close to the
1) The length of the commutation loop is designed to
power devices. Furthermore, the PCB allows mounting of
be as short as possible through compact placement of
high-frequency snubber capacitors (ceramic-type) signif-
the components while ensuring that the thermal and
icantly closer to the commutation loop to provide low-
temperature rise requirements of the busbars are met.
impedance decoupling during turn-off to reduce the device
2) The busbar layers are placed as close as possible to
voltage spike.
reduce the distance between the commutation loops
while ensuring appropriate isolation requirements. 3) WBG Impact on EMI and Its Mitigation: The high
Optimization can be done by reducing the number of switching frequency and fast switching times (dv/dt) of
Fig. 15. Typical 50% duty-cycle switching waveforms in power

converter (right) and their frequency spectrums (left). While
Wav1 depicts Si device switching waveforms, Wav2 and
Wav3 represent SiC/GaN devices switching at higher frequency,
faster slew rate, and more oscillation.
Fig. 13. PCB busbar for 135-kW SiC-based traction inverter.
basis for internal production specifications defined by the

WBG embedded PWM inverters pose challenges to EMI automotive manufacturer.
issues to the vehicle system and harm the traction motor A typical switching waveform from a power inverter is
operation and lifetime. Slowing down the WBG devices to shown as a trapezoidal waveform (Wav1) in Fig. 15. The
the same level as traditional switching devices can alleviate speed of transition (dv/dt) is characterized by rise time
the issues but also loses the system benefit of efficiency and (tr ), and the switching frequency (fsw ) can be represented
power density from upgrading to WBG devices. by the pulsewidth (tON ) if assuming 50% duty cycle in
EMI relies on three necessary aspects: noise source, this example (tON ≈ 1/fsw /2). The frequency spectrum,
noise propagation path, and noise victim (or receiver), plotted on the left-hand side as the green curve, clearly
as depicted in Fig. 14. For EV systems, the switching shows an envelope with two slopes divided by a frequency
actions of the power inverter are the major noise source. governed by the rise time tr . Wav2 is a waveform where
It causes the strongest interference with the converter both tr and tON are 1/10 of those of Wav1, correlating the
control circuitry itself, including gate drivers, isolators, characteristics of traditional Si devices and WBG devices.
and sensing, leading to false triggering and malfunction. The amplitude of frequency components for Wav2 can be
Because of the broadband nature, the noise source promi- 20 dB higher at the high-frequency range. More detailed
nently affects the performance of AM and FM radios [40]. analytical expressions can be found in [43]. Moreover,
With the growing trend of equipping advanced driver- WBG devices tend to suffer from more severe voltage
assistance systems and infotainment, which incorporates oscillation due to smaller parasitic capacitance, leading
more sensors, electronics, actuators, and complex wire to additional noise components at around the oscillation
harnesses, EMI becomes even more critical. frequency, as shown in Wav3 (see Fig. 15).
The International Special Committee on Radio Inter- EMI noise can be suppressed from the source, such as
ference (CISPR) has CISPR 12 [41] and CISPR 25 [42] through power-loop inductance minimization, to reduce
standards containing limits and procedures for the mea- the oscillation shown in Wav3 (see Fig. 15). The oscillation
surement of radio disturbances. Although CISPR 12 targets can also be suppressed by advanced gate driver design
protecting off-board receivers from interference from the through fine adjustment of the switching transitions with-
entire vehicle, CISPR 25 protects the receivers on the vehi- out increasing switching loss. By varying the switching fre-
cle, and it contains both whole-vehicle and component- quency within a certain range instead of a fixed switching
level tests. Notably, although CISPR 12 is required for frequency, the “spiky” spectrum can spread across a wider
conformity assessment, CISPR 25 mainly serves as the band, thereby easing the filtering requirement. It has been
reported that a 20-dB reduction on conducted EMI can
be achieved with this frequency dithering approach. Using
alternative inverter circuit topologies with an increased
number of switches, it is possible to create more switching
states, which can theoretically cancel out the EMI noise,
especially the CM portion [44].
Filtering and shielding can block the noise from propa-
gation to the victim. As the majority of CM noise propa-
gates across the parasitic capacitance of the system, it can
be expected that the noise at a higher frequency for the
Fig. 14. EMI occurs between noise sources and victims through WBG-based system will see even lower impedance, which
various propagation paths and mechanisms. is easier to leak. Therefore, for a WBG system, it will
be more effective to contain the CM noise as close as

possible to the noise source. Some studies have proposed
power module designs with integrated filter and shielding
structures [45]. As the general design principle for EMI
Fig. 17. AI-optimized heat sink for thermal imbalance mitigation
filter stays similar compared with Si-based inverters, within power module [28].
out directly dealing with the noise source and optimizing
power module design, the filter size will be likely bigger
and heavier if switching at higher frequency with WBG
devices [46]. heat sink structures using AI, as shown in Fig. 16, which
4) Power Electronics Thermal Management: Thermal were 3-D-printed using Additive Manufacturing Technol-
management is a necessity to be able to increase the ogy and have been demonstrated to outperform their con-
power conversion density of power electronics. Tradition- ventional counterparts [47], [48]. These structures were
ally, fin-based heat sinks, such as straight-fin and pin- optimized for minimum junction temperatures for high-
fin, have been used to cool the power electronic system power-density applications.
with air- and liquid-cooling-based systems. Liquid cooling In a similar direction, new cooling structures are being
helps to achieve higher power density due to the higher developed, which alleviates intrinsic thermal management
heat transfer capabilities of the coolant and is widely issues in power electronics. For example, a thermal imbal-
employed in automotive and defense applications. A vari- ance mitigation scheme proposed by Sahu et al. [68]
ety of coolants and fin designs have been theoretically and mitigates the intrinsic heat spreading issues in insu-
experimentally studied in the literature to achieve the best lated metal-based substrates by developing suitable liquid-
possible cooling of the system. Advanced cooling concepts, cooled heat sinks using AI and Multiphysics finite element
such as microchannel cooling, jet impingement, two-phase simulations (see Fig. 17) [28].
cold plates, double-sided packaging, and direct substrate
cooling, are also being implemented for such high-power- III. T R A C T I O N E L E C T R I C M O T O R
density power electronic applications. A. Advanced Materials for Electric Machines
With advancements in AI, another area of interest is to A comprehensive effort through materials development,
use such techniques to develop complex thermal manage- cooling techniques, and designs are required to push the
ment structures. In this area, ORNL has developed complex
state-of-the-art power density of 9.1 kW/L (BMW i3 2016)
to 50 kW/L (DOE 2025 goal) for traction electric machines.
Cost and availability of raw materials are also impor-
tant considerations for the traction electric machines,
which is driving the materials research and development
efforts. Few of the emerging materials are discussed next,
which includes ultraconductive copper (UCC) conductor
for windings, grain boundary diffusion (GBD) processed
magnets, and low-loss lamination materials.
Copper (Cu) is the widely used conductor for windings,
but, recently, the carbon nanotube (CNT)-incorporated
Cu windings are also gaining interest for traction elec-
tric machines [49]. A coating process on both sides of
Cu using the CNT layer showed an increase of 14%
in conductivity than conventional Cu. The same method
can be applied to round Cu to develop a multistrand
Cu–CNT conductor. Another process that has been devel-
oped in [50] showed that the Cu–CNT composite could
achieve a 28% higher conductivity compared with conven-
tional Cu. Although these composites are still commercially
unavailable, the UCC conductor’s availability will signifi-
cantly increase the power density of the electric machines.
Sintered neodymium–iron–boron (NdFeB) magnets are
the magnet choice for IPM machines because of their high
energy density and magnet knee-point well into the third
quadrant of the B –H characteristics. However, the cost of
these NdFeB magnets, due to the use of HRE materials,
Fig. 16. 3-D-printed (a) liquid cooled [47] and (b) air cooled [48] is also the primary disadvantage of PM type traction
heat sinks developed by ORNL. electric machines. The resistance to demagnetization of
NdFeB magnets and, by extension, its high-temperature

performance is improved by adding dysprosium
(Dy) or terbium (Tb) that is an HRE element. The
price instability, supply uncertainty, and the cost of Dy and
Tb are the major concerns for BEV/HEV manufacturers.
Therefore, the reduction or complete removal of HRE
contents from magnets without degrading performance
will lower the cost of the IPM machine in BEVs/HEVs.
Two types of magnets, the GBD magnets and the HRE-
free magnets, are available in the market having less
Dy or zero HRE content. In the GBD process, the HRE
rich compound is applied at the surface of the magnet,
which diffuses into the grain boundaries right below the
magnet surface, but not so much in the grain boundaries
in the interior of the magnet. The result of the diffusion Fig. 18. B–H properties of HRE and HRE-free PMs.
process is that the corners and edges of the magnets are

much richer with HRE rather than in the interior [51].
Table 3 Properties of Advanced Materials
The corners and the edges are more susceptible to
demagnetization in IPM machines. The B –H properties
of HRE-free (NEOREC45mhf) and HRE (G48UH) PMs are
compared in Fig. 18. It can be seen that both magnets
have similar remnant flux density at room temperature.
However, the knee point flux density of HRE-free PM is
at a higher flux density compared with that of HRE PM
at any operating temperature. The maximum operating
temperature of HRE-free PM is within 150 ◦ C–160 ◦ C,
whereas HRE PM can operate up to 220 ◦ C, which makes is 2.4 T, which will help increase the power density of
the former more vulnerable to demagnetization. the machines. The yield strength is 435 MPa for 0.15-mm
Promising new materials are also emerging for the lamination thickness, which will allow making thinner
stator/rotor laminations to improve magnetic properties bridges. The specific core loss is 22 W/kg at 800 Hz and 1 T.
and reduce cores losses, which will be useful for meet- Therefore, the power density, efficiency, and power factor
ing the desired goals for the next-generation high-speed of the electric machines can be improved significantly
electric machines. One of the low-loss electrical lamina- using this material. The main impediment for the use of
tion materials is the 6.5% Si steel [52], which is gaining Hyperco in automotive traction applications is its high
interest for high-speed electric machines. The material cost. The advanced lamination materials are summarized
has a lower specific core loss than traditional steel while in Table 3.
maintaining similar magnetic properties and has been used
for high-frequency transformers and inductors. However, B. Heavy Rare-Earth Free Machine Designs
the brittleness of this material during stamping limits its
A couple of promising HRE-free machine designs to
application for mass production. A promising material
meet the DOE 2025 goals, including relative advantages
introduced by GE is the dual-phase material that can
and disadvantages, are discussed in this section.
control the permeability in selective regions [53]. The
dual-phase materials can exhibit nonmagnetic behavior in 1) Outer Rotor Halbach PM Machine With Slotted Stator:
the bridges of the machines while having strong magnetic This configuration uses outer rotor topology to maximize
properties in the other parts of the rotor lamination. These the torque density (as opposed to inner rotor topology),
materials can then reduce the flux leakage while maintain- as shown in Fig. 19; the outer rotor also naturally provides
ing the structural integrity since the bridges are one of the natural retention against centrifugal force. The Halbach
major sources for flux leakage, which adversely affects the configuration maximizes the airgap flux density due to flux
power density and power factor of the machine. The main concentration. In addition, the stator is based on fractional
limitation of the dual-phase material is a lower saturation slot concentrated winding. The concentrated winding has a
flux density than M19 steel. The respective properties of shorter end-turn length and high-fill factor and can have a
the dual-phase material and 6% Si steel with respect to segmented stator. Three different HRE-free configurations
conventional materials are presented in [54]. with a maximum speed of 20 000 rpm have been compared
Another lamination material, Hyperco 50, is a 49% and reported in [55]. This configuration can have the
cobalt, 2% vanadium, and balanced iron alloy that has maximum power density compared with other HRE-free
the maximum saturation flux density while maintaining topologies (IPM machine). The challenges of magnet loss
excellent mechanical strength. The saturation flux density during high-speed operation and magnet demagnetization
Fig. 19. Outer rotor Halbach configuration (18-slot/12-pole).
during three-phase short-circuit fault are being worked on

for further improvement. The outer rotor configurations
also leave a hollow space in the middle where the drive
can be housed to increase the system-level power density.
2) Slotless-Halbach PM Machine With Embedded Cooling:

This outer rotor configuration with Halbach magnets uses
a slotless topology with winding embedded liquid cooling
(WELC) to reduce the frequency-dependent core loss and
magnet-loss during high-speed operation [56]. This elec-
tromagnetic configuration is illustrated in Fig. 20(a), while Fig. 20. (a) Slotless-Halbach machine with integrated drive.
the WELC concept is shown in Fig. 20(b). The outer rotor (b) WELC concept [58].
Halbach PM maximizes torque density and reduces the
harmonic contents of airgap flux density. The stator adopts
fractional slot concentrated winding to minimize the end
turn extension. The winding support uses commercially the cavity, which reduces the effect of the demagnetization
available nonmagnetic thermally conductive plastic with field on the edges, as illustrated in Fig. 21.
conductivity varying between 3 and 14 W/m·K [57]. With We consider the design of a segmented magnet IPM
the winding embedded cooling channels passing through machine for demonstrating the potentials and challenges
the winding support structure, the heat source (wind-
ing) comes into direct contact with the heat sink (low-
temperature coolant). In addition, an axial water jacket
cooling is added at the stator frame to further improve
the thermal performance, as shown in Fig. 20(b). The CFD
analysis has shown that a maximum current density (for
18 s) of 33 A(rms)/mm2 and a continuous current density
of 23 A(rms)/mm2 are feasible [58]. This translates to
an improvement of 50% over conventional housing water
jacket cooling. The main disadvantage of this Slotless-
Halbach topology is the very high three-phase short-circuit
fault, which increases the risk of demagnetization.
3) Segmented Magnet IPM Machine: The segmented

magnet IPM configuration is very similar to the state-of-
the-art configurations using inner rotor topology where
each pole has two magnets arranged in V-shape. However,
instead of using a single bar in each pocket, each magnet
is circumferentially segmented into three or five small
magnets. The corner magnets are thicker than the mid-
dle magnets to provide higher demagnetization withstand Fig. 21. Segmented magnet IPM machine: 2-D FEA model (1/4th
capability. The magnets are displaced from the starting of model) [59].
Table 4 Design Specifications and Performances of Segmented Magnet

IPM Machine
Fig. 22. Efficiency map of the segmented magnet IPM machine.
performance data, such as torque–speed, power–speed,

to be overcome for high-speed HRE-free IPM machines.
current–speed, efficiency map, and different loss compo-
In this design, a double-layer distributed winding with
nents.
stranded wire is considered to minimize the torque pul-
The design process includes a loss analysis to obtain
sations and magnet loss. The maximum operating speed
conductor loss, core loss, magnet loss, and mechanical loss.
and peak power have been considered to be 20 000 rpm
The analysis helps generate the efficiency map, as shown
and 100 kW, respectively, following the DOE 2025 research
in Fig. 22, for performance evaluation and to provide
goal [1]. Following the specifications of the commer-
the heat source inputs for the thermal modeling of the
cially available powertrain system, a CPSR of 3 has been
machine. The mechanical losses are not considered for the
selected, which translates to a base speed of 6667 rpm.
presented analysis. The conductor loss has been extracted
The slot/pole combination has been chosen to keep the
at 100 ◦ C to take care of the temperature effect on
maximum fundamental frequency less than 1500 Hz to
loss [60]. The core loss is obtained using 2-D FEA for a
restrict the frequency-dependent losses within a manage-
lamination thickness of 0.15 mm. Punching, stamping, and
able range. The stator winding consists of a double-layer
pressing of the core materials during the manufacturing
lap winding with a turn/coil ratio of 12. There are four
stage change the material properties, which makes the
parallel paths in the three-phase winding system so that it
FEA predicted core loss estimation less reliable. Machine
is possible to feed from one inverter (three-phase) or two
designers typically multiply the FEA predicted core losses
parallel inverters (six-phase) or a four-leg inverter source.
by a factor of 1.5 to 2. One of the challenging losses for
The detailed design and control methodologies for the IPM
HRE-free high-speed IPM machines is the magnet loss.
machines are presented in [15] and [60].
Magnet losses increase the magnets’ temperature and,
Multiobjective and multiphysics optimizations are
subsequently, push toward the demagnetization zone. It is
required to achieve the target specifications ensuring effi-
also challenging to extract heat from a rotary environment.
cient use of the materials. For the presented design,
For the designed machine, the magnet loss is less than 1 W
the objective functions and constraints are as follows:
in the entire operating range, even at 20 000 rpm.
Once the design has been finalized, different motor
max(T ), min(T R) = f (MW, ML, γ, TW, MA, Ror , BW) parameters need to be extracted, such as Ld , Lq , and Ke ,
VLL ≤ Vdc to develop an initial control algorithm. Motor parameters
vary under different loading conditions due to nonlinear
MV ≤ 1 p.u.
machine characteristics and saturation. Ld has less vari-
J ≤ 30 A(rms)/mm 2 (2) ation with loading, whereas Lq has higher variation due
to the saturation effect. The back EMF constant (phase-
where T, TR, MW, ML, γ , TW, MA, Ror , BW, VLL , MV, and peak/speed) also varies with loading and will drop from
J are the torque, torque ripple, magnet width, magnet the no-load value, as shown in Fig. 23.
length, phase advancement angle, magnet angle, rotor The thermal performance must be evaluated in the
outer radius, bridge width, line-line voltage, magnet vol- entire operating range to determine the peak and contin-
ume, and current density, respectively. The output of the uous power envelop for the designed machine. Typically,
finite element-based optimization process is the detailed the motor needs to provide the peak torque for a short
specifications, which is provided in Table 4. The sub- time (10, 15, or 18 s) depending on the requirement.
sequent step in the design process is to evaluate the In contrast, the continuous output power is the power
Fig. 25. PMs flux density distribution at transient peak condition

with three-phase short-circuit current at 20 000 rpm.
Fig. 23. Back EMF constant variation as a function of loading.

demagnetization evaluation, the PMs’ flux density is com-
pared with the knee point flux density (0.34 T at 140 ◦ C)
at transient peak current condition for the designed IPM
machine. The results, given in Fig. 25, show that the PMs
are safe from irreversible demagnetization validating that
that can be extracted from the motor without violating the
the segmented magnets help to improve the demagnetiza-
thermal limit. A spiral housing water jacket using forced
tion performance. Another worst case operating condition
convection liquid cooling with water–ethylene–glycol and
is when the entire available phase currents are pushed
end-winding potting using CoolThermSC [61] has been
through the negative d-axis. In this situation, the demag-
adopted for the design (see Fig. 24). The fluid flow rate
netization ratio (demagnetized area/total area) should be
is 6.5 L/min, and the inlet temperature is 65 ◦ C. The
less than 1% for the safe operation of PMs. To check
thermal analysis has been carried out using MotorCAD
demagnetization under this condition, a line is drawn just
based on a lumped parameter thermal network (LPTN).
inside the PM (0.1 mm inside), and the normal flux density
The maximum stator temperature is limited to 180 ◦ C, and
(in the magnetization direction) at this line is compared
the magnet temperature is limited to 140 ◦ C for safe oper-
with knee point flux density to check demagnetization. The
ation. Thermal analysis shows that the continuous output
results for the designed machine under this scenario are
power is 80% of the peak power with end-winding potting,
shown in Fig. 26. Although the segmented PM design can
which means that the peak power can be further increased.
enhance the demagnetization performance as presented,
Although the thermal performance can be enhanced signif-
further work is required in cavity/pole design to improve
icantly with end-winding potting, the manufacturing issues
the demagnetization or to increase the rotor operating
of potting for large traction machines need to overcome
temperature beyond 150 ◦ C.
before it can be a viable option [61].
With regards to the structural integrity for next-
The demagnetization of magnets in IPM machines
generation high-speed IPM machines operating with max-
must be evaluated during the design process since the
imum speeds over 20 000 rpm, the centrifugal forces will
traction power will get limited or even reduce to zero
have a tremendous effect on the rotor bridges, especially
for the partial or complete irreversible demagnetization.
at the center bridges. The center bridges need to be as
The maximum operating temperature for the HRE-free
large as possible from the mechanical point of view. In con-
PM’s safe operation is selected as 140 ◦ C. One of the
trast, the electromagnetic design requires bridges having
worst case conditions is the three-phase short-circuit fault
a thickness as minimum as possible. The increase in the
at the maximum operating speed (≥20 000 rpm). For
Fig. 26. Normal flux density inside PM when all available currents
Fig. 24. End-winding potting and housing water jacket cooling. in the negative d-axis.
Fig. 28. Tesla Model 3 electric powertrain where motor and

inverter are closely connected [64].
Fig. 27. Stress as a function of speed.
component of the inverter PWM output. Therefore, the cor-

thickness of the bridges reduces the PM flux linkage, PM ner frequency of the dv/dt filter is higher than that of
use, and, subsequently, the power density. The effect of the sine-wave filter and, thus, has a smaller size. In [65],
operating speed and bridge thickness on mechanical stress the inverter interconnect parasitic inductance was used to
is presented in [62]. The worst case structural performance reduce the filter size, and Schroedermeier and Ludois [66]
of the presented design is evaluated at 20 000 rpm using take a step further to integrate all RLC into one structure,
Ansys Mechanical, and the maximum stress as a function which achieved 80% filter weight reduction. The usage
of operating speed is presented in Fig. 27. The maximum of WBG devices at high switching frequency makes the
stress is at the center bridges. The HyperCo material has sine-wave filtering approach attractive. In [67], GaN-based
a yield strength of 435 MPa. The results show that a 100-kHz inverter achieves pure sine-wave output with very
proper selection of bridge thickness, rotor outer diameter, low filter volume and 2% higher efficiency than a Si-IGBT-
and maximum operating speed results in mechanically based 3-kW inverter.
stable design, even at 20 000 rpm. Rounded edges also help With the need for a high-power, high-density, traction
to reduce the mechanical stress [62]. The bearing and shaft inverter for heavy-duty applications, higher battery volt-
will also require special attention besides structural stress. age, such as 800–1500 V, may be needed. In this case,
motor insulation design will be more challenging for
C. WBG Impact on Motor Insulation higher nominal voltage, so the dv/dt issue would be more
High dv/dt voltage is detrimental to the motor wind- suitable to be addressed outside of the motor, for which the
ing insulation in two ways. On the one hand, due to related topic is expected to be of increasing importance in
impedance mismatch between the inverter output cable the years to come. In summary, for WBG drive systems,
and the motor, the motor terminal may see a voltage the rules for insulation solution should be a combination
higher than two times the nominal values. This overvoltage of adopting highly integrated motor drive with minimized
increases with a longer cable and faster rise time. On the cable length and controlling switching dv/dt of WBG by
other hand, switching voltage with high dv/dt causes an various active/passive techniques.
uneven distribution of applied voltage across the turns and
coils of a motor winding. Some insulation layer between IV. C O N C L U S I O N
winding turns may need to sustain higher voltage than There are a lot of challenges yet to be addressed in
others, leading to partial discharge and gradual insulation inverters and motors to make future EVs more efficient
breakdown [63]. and affordable. High-power-density targets are important
The first mechanism is mainly mitigated by placing for integrating the electric drive with the base that holds
the traction inverter as close as possible to the motor. the battery. These can be achieved with better and more
Tesla Model 3 was the first commercial EV adopting SiC integrated designs. WBG-based inverters cannot just mimic
MOSFETs, and its teardown conducted by Electrek [64] their Si-based versions just like how the current BEV
shows that the motor and inverter unit are attached to designs are not mimicking the conventional gas-powered
each other (see Fig. 28). Extensive ongoing research on vehicle designs. The use of emerging materials with novel
the integration of motor and inverter will further shrink designs will be needed to meet the aggressive targets set
this connection [35]. for future BEVs. WBG-based inverter drives and HRE-free
The second mechanism can be addressed by strength- machine designs will make their way toward commer-
ening the insulation but can also be handled by adding a cialization with minimum manufacturing complexity to
dv/dt or sine-wave filter between the inverter and motor. address both cost and reliability. EMI for the WBG-based
Both filters can be RLC filters but with different corner drive system will be more severe than the Si-based alter-
frequencies because the dv/dt filter targets to reduce the native. Only with careful planning on mitigation measures
dv/dt of the inverter switching edges, while the sine- at the noise source and the effort to contain the noise as
wave filter eventually produces only the fundamental local as possible, the full benefit of WBG can be harvested.
Innovations in both designs and manufacturing are nec- nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license
essary to achieve the power density of 50 kW/L for to publish or reproduce the published form of this
the electric machine and 100 kW/L for the inverter manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government
drive. purposes. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will
provide public access to these results of federally spon-
Acknowledgment sored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access
The publisher, by accepting the article for publication, Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-
acknowledges that the U.S. Government retains a plan).
REFERENCES
[1] Electrical and Electronics Technical Team Roadmap, predicting noise and vibration in [31] M. Letz et al., “Glass ceramics as dielectrics for high
U.S. DOE Vehicle Technol. Office, Washington, DC, permanent-magnet synchronous motors,” IEEE power capacitors,” in Proc. IEEE Int. Power
USA, Oct. 2017. Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 46, no. 6, pp. 2346–2354, Modulator High Voltage Conf. (IPMHVC), Jun. 2014,
[2] M. Anwar, S. M. N. Hasan, M. Teimor, M. Korich, Nov./Dec. 2010. pp. 1–4.
and M. B. Hayes, “Development of a power dense [17] B. Zhang, R. Qu, J. Wang, W. Xu, X. Fan, and [32] S. Chowdhury, E. Gurpinar, and B. Ozpineci,
and environmentally robust traction power inverter Y. Chen, “Thermal model of totally enclosed “High-energy density capacitors for electric vehicle
for the second-generation Chevrolet Volt water-cooled permanent-magnet synchronous traction inverters,” in Proc. IEEE Transp. Electrific.
extended-range EV,” in Proc. IEEE Energy Conv. machines for electric vehicle application,” IEEE Conf. Expo (ITEC), Jun. 2020, pp. 644–650.
Cong. Expo. (ECCE), Sep. 2015, pp. 6006–6013. Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 51, no. 4, pp. 3020–3029, [33] J. Konrad, M. Koini, M. Schossmann, and M. Puff.
[3] A. Agamloh, A. Jouanne, and A. Yokochi, “An Jul. 2015. (2014). New Demands DC Link Power Capacitors.
overview of electric machine trends in modern [18] A. Elasser and T. P. Chow, “Silicon carbide benefits Accessed: Apr. 15, 2019. [Online]. Available:
electric vehicles,” Machines, vol. 8, no. 2, p. 20, and advantages for power electronics circuits and https://www.tdk-electronics.tdk.com/
2020. systems,” Proc. IEEE, vol. 90, no. 6, pp. 969–986, download/1279076/7184cbcd4038e
[4] (2019). Tesla Model 3 Powertrain Fun. From Jun. 2002. 8639c4bb245091adabc/ceralink-
Carburetors to Carborundum. You’ve Come a Long [19] J. W. Palmour, “Silicon carbide power device white-paper.pdf
Way, Baby! Accessed: Jul. 22, 2020. [Online]. development for industrial markets,” in IEDM Tech. [34] G. Su and L. Tang, “A segmented traction drive
Available: https://cleantechnica.com/2018/ Dig., Dec. 2014, pp. 1.1.1–1.1.8. system with a small DC bus capacitor,” in Proc. IEEE
05/28/more-tesla-model-3-powertrain-fun- [20] B. J. Baliga, “Semiconductors for high-voltage, Energy Conv. Cong. Expo. (ECCE), Sep. 2012,
fromcarburetors- vertical channel field-effect transistors,” J. Appl. pp. 2847–2853.
to-carborundum-youve-come-a-long-way-baby/ Phys., vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 1759–1764, 1982. [35] S. Chowdhury, E. Gurpinar, G. Su, T. Raminosoa,
[5] T. Burress, “Electrical performance, reliability [21] E. A. Jones, F. F. Wang, and D. Costinett, “Review of T. A. Burress, and B. Ozpineci, “Enabling
analysis, and characterization,” U.S. DOE Vehicle commercial GAN power devices and GAN-based technologies for compact integrated electric drives
Technol. Office, Washington, DC, USA, converter design challenges,” IEEE J. Emerg. Sel. for automotive traction applications,” in Proc. IEEE
Tech. Rep. EDT087, 2017. Topics Power Electron., vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 707–719, Trans. Electrific. Conf. Expo (ITEC), Jun. 2019,
[6] K. M. Rahman, S. Jurkovic, C. Stancu, J. Morgante, Sep. 2016. pp. 1–8.
and P. J. Savagian, “Design and performance of [22] X. She et al., “High performance silicon carbide [36] R. S. Krishna Moorthy et al., “Estimation,
electrical propulsion system of extended range power block for industry applications,” IEEE Trans. minimization, and validation of commutation loop
electric vehicle (EREV) Chevrolet Volt,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 3738–3747, inductance for a 135-kW SiC EV traction inverter,”
Ind. Appl., vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 2479–2488, Jul./Aug. 2017. IEEE J. Emerg. Sel. Topics Power Electron., vol. 8,
Jun. 2015. [23] J. Broughton, V. Smet, R. R. Tummala, and no. 1, pp. 286–297, Nov. 2020.
[7] F. Momen, K. Rahman, and Y. Son, “Electrical Y. K. Joshi, “Review of thermal packaging [37] M. C. Caponet, F. Profumo, R. W. De Doncker, and
propulsion system design of Chevrolet Bolt battery technologies for automotive power electronics for A. Tenconi, “Low stray inductance bus bar design
electric vehicle,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 55, traction purposes,” J. Electron. Packag., vol. 140, and construction for good EMC performance in
no. 1, pp. 376–384, Feb. 2019. no. 4, Aug. 2018, Art. no. 040801, power electronic circuits,” IEEE Trans. Power
[8] D. Winterborne, N. Stannard, L. Sjöberg, and doi: 10.1115/1.4040828. Electron., vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 225–231, Mar. 2002.
G. Atkinson, “An air-cooled Yasa Motor for in-wheel [24] C. Chen, F. Luo, and Y. Kang, “A review of sic power [38] C. Chen, X. Pei, Y. Chen, and Y. Kang,
electric vehicle applications,” in Proc. IEEE Int. module packaging: Layout, material system and “Investigation, evaluation, and optimization of
Electr. Mach. Drives Conf. (IEMDC), May 2019, integration,” CPSS Trans. Power Electron. Appli., stray inductance in laminated busbar,” IEEE Trans.
pp. 976–981. vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 170–186, 2017. Power Electron., vol. 29, no. 7, pp. 3679–3693,
[9] K. M. Rahman, N. R. Patel, T. G. Ward, [25] L. Stevanovic, “Packaging challenges and solutions Jul. 2014.
J. M. Nagashima, F. Caricchi, and F. Crescimbini, for silicon carbide power electronics,” in ECTC [39] D. Rahman et al., “Design methodology for a
“Application of direct-drive wheel motor for fuel Panel Session: Power Electronics—A Booming planarized high power density EV/HEV traction
cell electric and hybrid electric vehicle propulsion Market. San Diego, CA, USA, 2012. [Online]. drive using SIC power modules,” in Proc. IEEE
system,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 42, no. 5, Available: https://www.ectc.net/files/62/2_ Energy Convers. Congr. Expo. (ECCE), Sep. 2016,
pp. 1185–1192, Sep. 2006. Stevanovic_GE.pdf pp. 1–7.
[10] (2020). Driving Future EV. Accessed: Nov. 15, 2020. [26] K. Weidner, M. Kaspar, and N. Seliger, “Planar [40] A. Okubo, K. Throngnumchai, and T. Hayashi,
[Online]. Available: https://www.proteanelectric. interconnect technology for power module system “Common mode EMI reduction structure of
com/ integration,” in Proc. 7th Int. Conf. Integr. Power EV/HEV inverters for high-speed switching,” in
[11] (2020). Solutions-Elaphe. Accessed: Nov. 15, 2020. Electron. Syst. (CIPS), 2012, pp. 1–5. Proc. IEEE Energy Convers. Congr. Expo. (ECCE),
[Online]. Available: http://in-wheel.com/en/ [27] M. B. Hayes. (2018). 650V Silicon Carbide Oct. 2017, pp. 2341–2345.
[12] T. Husain and S. T. Lee, “Design considerations for Integrated Power Module for Automotive Inverters. [41] (2007). CISPR 12:2007—IEC
magnet configurations in IPM rotor for high speed Accessed: Apr. 15, 2019. [Online]. Available: Webstore—Electromagnetic Compatibility, EMC,
traction applications,” in Proc. IEEE Energy Conv. https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/ Smart City. Accessed: Jul. 19, 2020. [Online].
Cong. Expo. (ECCE), Sep./Oct. 2019, 2018/06/f52/elt083_hayes_2018_o_.pdf Available: https://webstore.iec.ch/publication/5
pp. 6062–6069. [28] E. Gurpinar, S. Chowdhury, B. Ozpineci, and [42] (2016). CISPR 25:2016—IEC
[13] M. S. Islam, M. A. Kabir, R. Mikail, and I. Husain, W. Fan, “Graphite-embedded high-performance Webstore—Electromagnetic Compatibility, EMC,
“Space-shifted wye–delta winding to minimize insulated metal substrate for wide-bandgap power Smart City, Transportation, Mobility.
space harmonics of fractional-slot winding,” IEEE modules,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 36, Accessed: Jul. 18, 2020. [Online]. Available:
Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 56, no. 3, pp. 2520–2530, no. 1, pp. 114–128, Jan. 2021, doi: https://webstore.iec.ch/publication/26122
May/Jun. 2020. 10.1109/TPEL.2020.3001528. [43] N. Oswald, B. H. Stark, D. Holliday, C. Hargis, and
[14] M. S. Islam, M. A. Kabir, R. Mikail, and I. Husain, [29] J. W. Kolar and S. D. Round, “Analytical calculation B. Drury, “Analysis of shaped pulse transitions in
“A systematic approach for stator MMF harmonic of the rms current stress on the DC-link capacitor of power electronic switching waveforms for reduced
elimination using three-layer fractional slot voltage-PWM converter systems,” IEE Proc.—Electr. EMI generation,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 47,
winding,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 56, no. 4, Power Appl., vol. 153, no. 4, pp. 535–543, 2006. no. 5, pp. 2154–2165, Sep./Oct. 2011.
pp. 3516–3525, Apr. 2020. [30] (2018). Film Capacitors General Technical [44] D. Jiang, Z. Shen, and F. Wang, “Common-mode
[15] M. S. Islam, I. Husain, A. Ahmed, and A. Sathyan, Information. Accessed: Apr. 15, 2019. [Online]. voltage reduction for paralleled inverters,” IEEE
“Asymmetric bar winding for high-speed traction Available: https://www.tdk-electronics.tdk. Trans. Power Electron., vol. 33, no. 5,
electric machines,” IEEE Trans. Transport. Electrific., com/download/530754/480aeb04c789 pp. 3961–3974, May 2018.
vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 3–15, Mar. 2020. e45ef5bb9681513474ba/pdf- [45] T. Huber, A. Kleimaier, and R. Kennel, “Ultra-low
[16] R. Islam and I. Husain, “Analytical model for generaltechnicalinformation.pdf inductive power module design with integrated
common mode noise shielding,” in Proc. 19th Eur. phase material component and method of A. Sathyan, H. Dadkhah, and A. Emadi, “A review
Conf. Power Electron. Appl. (EPE ECCE Europe), forming,” U.S. Patent 9 634 549 B2, Apr. 25 2017. of structural and thermal analysis of traction
2017, pp. P.1–P.9. [54] A. El-Refaie, “Role of advanced materials in motors,” IEEE Trans. Transport. Electrific., vol. 1,
[46] B. Zhang and S. Wang, “A survey of EMI research in electrical machines,” CES Trans. Electr. Mach. Syst., no. 3, pp. 255–265, Oct. 2015.
power electronics systems with wide-bandgap vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 124–132, 2019. [63] Y. Xie, J. Zhang, F. Leonardi, A. R. Munoz, F. Liang,
semiconductor devices,” IEEE J. Emerg. Sel. Topics [55] T. Raminosoa and T. Aytug, “Impact of and M. W. Degner, “Modeling and verification of
Power Electron., vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 626–643, ultra-conducting winding on the power density and electrical stress in inverter-driven electric machine
Nov. 2020. performance of non-heavy rare earth traction windings,” in Proc. IEEE Energy Conv. Cong. Expo.
[47] T. Wu, B. Ozpineci, and C. Ayers, “Genetic motors,” in Proc. IEEE Int. Electr. Mach. Drives Conf. (ECCE), Sep. 2018, pp. 5742–5749.
algorithm design of a 3D printed heat sink,” in (IEMDC), May 2019, pp. 2107–2114. [64] Tesla Model 3 Teardown Gives Incredible Look at the
Proc. IEEE Appl. Power Electron. Conf. Expo. (APEC), [56] M. S. Islam, R. Mikail, and I. Husain, “Slotless Electric Powertrain—Electrek. Accessed: Jul. 20,
Mar. 2016, pp. 3529–3536. lightweight motor for aerial applications,” IEEE 2020. [Online]. Available:
[48] T. Wu, Z. Wang, B. Ozpineci, M. Chinthavali, and Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 55, no. 6, pp. 5789–5799, https://electrek.co/2018/07/26/tesla-model-3-
S. Campbell, “Automated heatsink optimization for Aug. 2019. teardown-electric-powertrain/
air-cooled power semiconductor modules,” IEEE [57] Celanese Coolpoly D5506. Accessed: Jul. 29, 2020. [65] E. Velander et al., “An ultralow loss inductorless
Trans. Power Electron., vol. 34, no. 6, [Online]. Available: http://www. dv/dt filter concept for medium-power voltage
pp. 5027–5031, Nov. 2019. lookpolymers.com/ source motor drive converters with sic devices,”
[49] K. Li et al., “Copper–carbon nanotube composites [58] R. Chattopadhyay, M. Islam, R. Mikail, and IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 33, no. 7,
enabled by electrospinning for advanced I. Husain, “Winding embedded liquid cooling for pp. 6072–6081, Jul. 2018.
conductors,” ACS Appl. Nano Mater., vol. 3, no. 7, high power density slotless motor,” in Proc. IEEE [66] A. Schroedermeier and D. C. Ludois, “Integration of
pp. 6863–6875, 2020, Energy Conv. Cong. Expo. (ECCE), Oct. 2020, inductors, capacitors, and damping into bus bars
doi: 10.1021/acsanm.0c01236. pp. 1083–1088. for silicon carbide inverter dv/dt filters,” IEEE
[50] C. Subramaniam et al., “One hundred fold increase [59] I. Husain and M. S. Islam, “Machines utilizing Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 55, no. 5, pp. 5045–5054,
in current carrying capacity in a carbon heavy rare earth free permanent magnets,” U.S. Jun. 2019.
nanotube–copper composite,” Nature Commun., Patent 63 004 951, Apr. 3, 2020. [67] K. Shirabe et al., “Efficiency comparison between
vol. 4, no. 2202, 2013, doi: 10.1038/ncomms3202. [60] Y. Yang et al., “Design and comparison of interior SI-IGBT-based drive and GaN-based drive,” IEEE
[51] M. P. Thompson et al., “Grain-boundary-diffused permanent magnet motor topologies for traction Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 566–572,
magnets: The challenges in obtaining reliable and applications,” IEEE Trans. Transport. Electrific., Feb. 2014.
representative BH curves for electromagnetic motor vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 86–97, Oct. 2017. [68] R. Sahu, E. Gurpinar, and B. Ozpineci,
design,” IEEE Electrific. Mag., vol. 5, no. 1, [61] S. Nategh, A. Boglietti, D. Barber, Y. Liu, and “Liquid-cooled heat sink optimization for thermal
pp. 19–27, 2Mar. 017. R. Brammer, “Thermal and manufacturing aspects imbalance mitigation in wide-bandgap power
[52] (2019). Supercore. Accessed: Jul. 20, 2020. of traction motors potting: A deep experimental modules,” in Proc. ASME Int. Tech. Conf. Exhib.
[Online]. Available: https://www.jfe-steel. evaluation,” IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 35, Packag. Integr. Electron. Photon. Microsyst.,
co.jp/en/products/electrical/catalog/f1e-002.pdf no. 2, pp. 1026–1035, Jun. 2020. Oct. 2020.
[53] L. C. Dial, R. DiDomizio, and F. Johnson, “Dual [62] S. Ramarathnam, A. K. Mohammed, B. Bilgin,
ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Iqbal Husain (Fellow, IEEE) received the where he became a full-time Research and Development Staff Mem-
Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from ber in 2002, the Group Leader of the Power and Energy Systems
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, Group in 2008, and the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery
USA, in 1993. Group in 2011, and is currently serving as the Section Head of the
He was with The University of Akron, Vehicle and Mobility System Research Section. He is also a Joint
Akron, OH, USA, where he built a suc- Faculty with the Bredesen Center, The University of Tennessee.
cessful power electronics and motor drives
program. He was a Visiting Professor with
Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA,
in 2001. He is currently the Director of the FREEDM NSF Engineering
Center and the ABB Distinguished Professor with the Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina State
University, Raleigh, NC, USA. His expertise is in the areas of power
electronics, electric machines, motor drives, and system controls.
He has also developed innovative graduate and undergraduate
courses on electric and hybrid vehicles and published the textbook
Electric and Hybrid Vehicles: Design Fundamentals on these topics.
Md Sariful Islam (Graduate Student Mem-
His research is also focused on power electronics integration into
ber, IEEE) received the B.Sc. and M.Sc.
power and transportation systems. The primary applications of
degrees in electrical and electronic engi-
his work are in the transportation, automotive, aerospace, and
neering (EEE) from Bangladesh University of
power industries.
Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka,
Dr. Husain received the 2006 SAE Vincent Bendix Automotive
Bangladesh, in 2012 and 2014, respectively,
Electronics Engineering Award, the 2004 College of Engineering
and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineer-
Outstanding Researcher Award, the 2000 IEEE Third Millennium
ing from North Carolina State University,
Medal, and the 1998 IEEE-IAS Outstanding Young Member Award.
Raleigh, NC, USA, in 2020.
He was the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Electrification Magazine from
He was a Graduate Research Assistant with the Department of
2016 to 2020.
Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina State Uni-
Burak Ozpineci (Fellow, IEEE) received the versity, from August 2016 to October 2020. He is currently an
B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Electromagnetic Engineer with Halla Mechatronics, Bay City, MI,
Orta Dogu Technical University, Ankara, USA, where he is responsible for designing motor and sensors
Turkey, in 1994, and the M.S. and Ph.D. for automotive applications. His research interests include design,
degrees in electrical engineering from The modeling, and control of electric machines with noise and vibration
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA, analysis. He also focuses on high-performance electric machines
in 1998 and 2002, respectively. with wide bandgap (WBG) drives.
In 2001, he joined the Post-Master’s Pro- Dr. Islam is a member of the IEEE Industrial Applications Society.
gram of the Power Electronics and Electric He is also serving as a reviewer for several IEEE journals and
Machinery Group, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Knoxville, conferences on electric machines and drives.
Emre Gurpinar (Senior Member, IEEE) Shajjad Chowdhury (Member, IEEE)

received the B.Sc. degree from Istan- received the B.Sc. degree in electrical and
bul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey, electronics engineering from the American
in 2009, the M.Sc. degree from The Uni- International University Bangladesh, Dhaka,
versity of Manchester, Manchester, U.K., Bangladesh, in 2009, the M.Sc. degree
in 2010, and the Ph.D. degree from the in power and control engineering from
University of Nottingham, Nottingham, U.K., Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool,
in 2017, all in electrical engineering. U.K., in 2011, and the Ph.D. degree in
He was a Visiting Ph.D. Student with the electrical and electronics engineering from
Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, the University of Nottingham, Nottingham, U.K., in 2016.
Denmark, from August 2015 to October 2015. He was an R&D In January 2017, he joined the Power Electronics, Machines and
Power Electronics Engineer with General Electric, Rugby, U.K. Control Group, University of Nottingham, as a Research Fellow.
In May 2017, he joined the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, In 2018, he joined Electric Drives Research Group, Oak Ridge
Knoxville, TN, USA, where he is currently an R&D Staff with the National Laboratory, Knoxville, TN, USA, as a Postdoctoral Research
Electric Drives Research Group. His research interests include wide Associate. His research interests include multilevel converters,
bandgap power devices, high-frequency converters, packaging and modulation schemes, and high-performance ac drives.
integration of power electronic systems, and electrified transporta-
tion.
Dr. Gurpinar received the Outstanding Paper Award at the ASME Lincoln (Lingxiao) Xue (Senior Member,
InterPACK Conference in 2019. IEEE) received the B.S. and M.S. degrees
from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China,
in 2006 and 2008, respectively, and the
Gui-Jia Su (Senior Member, IEEE) received
Ph.D. degree from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg,
the B.S. degree in electrical engineering
VA, USA, in 2015, all in electrical and elec-
from the Wuhan University of Hydraulic
tronics engineering.
and Electrical Engineering, Wuhan, China,
In 2015, he joined Navitas Semiconduc-
in 1985, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees
tor, El Segundo, CA, USA, where he has
in electrical engineering from the Nagaoka
been a Senior Staff Applications Engineer. He is currently an
University of Technology, Nagaoka, Japan, in
R&D Staff with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Knoxville, TN,
1989 and 1992, respectively.
USA. His research focuses on power electronics design and archi-
From 1992 to 1995, he was an Assistant
tecture, specializing in wide bandgap devices, solid-state light-
Professor with the Nagaoka University of Technology. From 1995 to
ing, high-frequency/density power conversion, and transportation
1998, he was with Sanken Electrical Company Ltd., Kawagoe,
electrification.
Japan, where he was engaged in research and development
Dr. Xue has served the IEEE Power Electronics Society as the
of uninterruptible power supplies, sensorless permanent magnet
Young Professionals Chair and the Chapter Chair of the IEEE Power
(PM) motor drives, and power factor correction for single- and
Electronic Society in the Coastal Los Angeles Section.
three-phase rectifiers. In 1998, he started working at the Power
Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Center, Oak Ridge
National Laboratory, Knoxville, TN, USA, as a Research Scientist,
Dhrubo Rahman (Graduate Student Mem-
and is currently a Distinguished Member of the R&D Staff. His
ber, IEEE) received the B.Sc. degree in
research interests include dc/dc converters, inverters, wired and
electrical and electronic engineering (EEE)
wireless battery chargers, and traction motor drives for electric
from Bangladesh University of Engineering
vehicle applications.
and Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh,
Dr. Su was a recipient of the U.S. Department of Energy Vehicle
in 2012, and the M.S. degree in electrical
Technologies Office Distinguished Achievement Award in 2019. He
engineering (EE) from Rensselaer Polytech-
is also a Battelle Distinguished Inventor.
nic Institute (RPI), Troy, NY, USA, in 2015. He
is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree
Wensong Yu (Member, IEEE) received the at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North
M.S. degree in mechanical and electrical Carolina State University (NCSU), Raleigh, NC, USA.
engineering from the Central China Uni- He is currently a Graduate Research Assistant with the FREEDM
versity of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Systems Center, NCSU. His primary research interest is in the
China, in 1995, and the Ph.D. degree in system-level design and optimization of traction drives for electric
mechanical and electrical engineering from vehicles using wide bandgap semiconductor devices.
the South China University of Technology,
Guangzhou, China, in 2000.
From 2006 to 2013, he was a Postdoc- Raj Sahu (Member, IEEE) received the
toral Researcher, a Research Scientist, and a Research Assistant B.Tech. (Honors) and M.Tech. degrees in
Professor with Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer electrical engineering from IIT Kharagpur,
Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Kharagpur, India, in 2014, and the Ph.D.
Blacksburg, VA, USA. Since 2013, he has been a Research Associate degree in electrical and computer engineer-
Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engi- ing from Purdue University, West Lafayette,
neering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA. His cur- IN, USA, in 2019.
rent research interests are high-frequency solid-state transformer, He held a postdoctoral position at ORNL in
advanced soft-switching technique, digital control of multiswitch 2019. His research interests include design
topology, wide bandgap (WBG) device applications, ultrahigh effi- and analysis of power magnetic devices, constrained multiobjec-
ciency inverter, high-voltage power conversion and protection, tive optimization, thermal management design, and AI application
WBG electric vehicle traction drive, distributed energy storage for high-power-density wide bandgap power electronic module
devices, and green energy grid infrastructure. development.

Electric Drive Technology Trends Challenges and Opportunities For Future Electric Vehicles

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Electric Drive Technology Trends Challenges and Opportunities For Future Electric Vehicles

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Electric Drive Technology

Trends, Challenges, and

Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021 | P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE 1039

years, this drastic improvement in vehicle electrification

1040 P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE | Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021

Table 1 Representative Set of Traction Inverters Used in Commercially Available EVs/HEVs

Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021 | P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE 1041

Table 2 Representative Set of Electric Machines Used in Commercially Available EVs/HEVs

the dc-link voltage to accommodate the higher back-

1042 P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE | Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021

Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021 | P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE 1043

extraction method. Forced liquid cooling is the popular

1044 P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE | Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021

In EV applications, liquid-cooled heat sinks are commonly

Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021 | P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE 1045

thus, avoids many of the challenges. In addition, soft turn-

Fig. 7. High-power-density modules. (a) Siemens SiPLIT POL

core replaces the solid copper core. The graphite mater-

1046 P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE | Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021

under AQG 324: Automotive Power Module Qualification

thus, a capacitor absorbs a large ripple current due to the capacitors.

inverter switching action. The dc-link capacitor for a three-

Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021 | P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE 1047

E. Inverter Design Optimization

WBG devices are generally desired to be operated at

1) Inverter Loop Inductance Minimization: In inverter

1048 P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE | Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021

layers or changing the order of stacking the laminated

Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021 | P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE 1049

Fig. 15. Typical 50% duty-cycle switching waveforms in power

basis for internal production specifications defined by the

1050 P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE | Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021

be more effective to contain the CM noise as close as

Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021 | P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE 1051

NdFeB magnets and, by extension, its high-temperature

process is that the corners and edges of the magnets are

1052 P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE | Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021

Fig. 19. Outer rotor Halbach configuration (18-slot/12-pole).

during three-phase short-circuit fault are being worked on

2) Slotless-Halbach PM Machine With Embedded Cooling:

3) Segmented Magnet IPM Machine: The segmented

Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021 | P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE 1053

Table 4 Design Specifications and Performances of Segmented Magnet

Fig. 22. Efficiency map of the segmented magnet IPM machine.

performance data, such as torque–speed, power–speed,

1054 P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE | Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021

Fig. 25. PMs flux density distribution at transient peak condition

Fig. 23. Back EMF constant variation as a function of loading.

Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021 | P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE 1055

Fig. 28. Tesla Model 3 electric powertrain where motor and

component of the inverter PWM output. Therefore, the cor-

1056 P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE | Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021

Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021 | P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE 1057

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

1058 P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE | Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021

Emre Gurpinar (Senior Member, IEEE) Shajjad Chowdhury (Member, IEEE)

Vol. 109, No. 6, June 2021 | P ROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE 1059

You might also like