Practical consideration and implementation of a medium voltage SiC AC-DC rectifier

The implementation of a novel bidirectional medium voltage AC-DC converter based on 10kV SiC MOSFET is presented in this paper. The improved topology allows the removal of the reverse blocking silicon diode in medium voltage SiC MOSFET module. Shoot-through problems and avalanche of the integrated silicon diode in traditional medium voltage bridge-type AC-DC converters are solved, allowing zero dead-time operation with no current flowing through the body diode. The number of parasitic capacitors at each swing point are reduced by half, greatly reducing the dominant turn on losses caused by these capacitors. A unique customized four-in-one 10kV SiC MOSFET/JBS diode power module with high voltage isolation capability is developed and tested, which reduces parasitic parameters and simplifies converter complexity. Section based winding method is further used to reduce the inductor parasitic capacitance by 40%, helping to reduce the dominant turn-on losses by 13%. Anti-windup and feed forward control are implemented to achieve better performance. Soft start combining with a high voltage relay and fuse are used to limit the inrush current and overshoot voltage during the start-up process. Delta-sigma based fiber optical high voltage sensor is designed and implemented to achieve higher than 10kV voltage sensing capability.