Converter-Level Integration for Wide Band-Gap Automotive Power Electronics

Wide band-gap (WBG) semiconductors offer many potential benefits to designers of power electronic systems. Lower switching losses allow operation at higher switching frequencies, which in principle allows a reduction in passive component values in many converter applications. However, efficient operation at higher switching frequencies requires increased voltage and current transition rates. With conventional packaging and circuit construction, parasitic inductance and capacitance can deteriorate converter performance, reducing efficiency and adding to the electromagnetic interference (EMI) emitted from the system. Outside the commutation cell, fast voltage transitions may lead to unacceptably high levels of conducted and radiated EMI, so approaches involving the local filtering of converter outputs are attractive. To mitigate these effects in conventional modules, switching speeds are often deliberately limited and the potential benefits of using WBG technologies cannot be fully realized. Here we examine the design and realization of Converter-in-Package (CiP) modular blocks for system power levels from 100s W to 100s kW, incorporating individual commutation cells with close-coupled gate drives, input/output filtering and reduced EMI. The concept is illustrated through the realization of a modular, segmented power converter for an integrated drive.