Vibroacoustical Performance Analysis of a Rigid Device Casing with Piezoelectric Shunt Damping

Noise and vibration are common issues that may have a negative impact on human’s’ health. To minimize their consequences, several vibroacoustical methods may be employed. One well-known method is Piezoelectric Shunt Damping (PSD). Over the years, many approaches have been investigated, from passive, state switching circuits to active pulse-switching. In this paper, the authors propose three PSD implementations—passive Synchronized Switch Damping on Inductor (SSDI), semi-active SSDI and active Synchronized Switch Damping on Voltage source (SSDV)—for a single-panel structure mounted on a rigid-frame casing. The nine Macro Fiber Composite (MFC) elements were mounted on the plate based on preliminary simulations in FreeFEM. Then, the theoretical results were validated by an identification experiment. The main research is concentrated on the Sound Pressure Level (SPL) and structural vibrations reduction for selected frequencies. The active method provided the highest reduction of vibration—up to 5.5 dB for maximal possible loudspeaker level without overdrive and up to 7.5 dB for lower excitation levels.

Development of a Pulsed Power Supply Utilizing 13 kV Class SiC-MOSFETs

To resolve the drawback of conventional thyratron switches, development of a semiconductor high voltage switch utilizing a 13 kV class SiC-MOSFET developed by Tsukuba Power Electronics Constellations (TPEC) is proceeding. At first, the device evaluation test was carried out with a resistive load circuit. With the conditions of drain voltage of 10 kV and load resistance of 1 kΩ, turn on loss Eon, turn off loss Eoff, rise time Tr and fall time Tf were 1.7 mJ, 1.1 mJ, 64 ns, and 75 ns, respectively. Thereafter, the 2s-12p switch array was designed and assembled, where 12 MOSFETs are equally aligned on a circle shaped circuit board and two circuit boards are stacked in series. An 18 kV-318 A-1 us pulse with a rise time of 289 ns in the short pulse switching test were successfully demonstrated. Moreover, switching tests of 2nd generation MOSFET that has a twice larger device area was conducted. As a result, 60 % reduction of on-resistance was confirmed.

10 kV Silicon Carbide PiN Diodes—From Design to Packaged Component Characterization

This paper presents the design, fabrication and characterization results obtained on the last generation (third run) of SiC 10 kV PiN diodes from SuperGrid Institute. In forward bias, the 59 mm2 diodes were tested up to 100 A. These devices withstand voltages up to 12 kV on wafer (before dicing, packaging) and show a low forward voltage drop at 80 A. The influence of the temperature from 25 °C to 125 °C has been assessed and shows that resistivity modulation occurs in the whole temperature range. Leakage current at 3 kV increases with temperature, while being three orders of magnitude lower than those of equivalent Si diodes. Double-pulse switching tests reveal the 10 kV SiC PiN diode’s outstanding performance. Turn-on dV/dt and di/dt are −32 V/ns and 311 A/µs, respectively, whereas turn-off dV/dt and di/dt are 474 V/ns and −4.2 A/ns.

Self-Sustained Turn-Off Oscillation of SiC MOSFETs: Origin, Instability Analysis, and Prevention

This paper presents a comprehensive investigation on the self-sustained oscillation of silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs. At first, based on the double pulse switching test, it is identified that the self-sustained oscillation of SiC MOSFETs can be triggered by two distinct test conditions. To investigate the oscillatory criteria of the two types of self-sustained oscillation, a small-signal ac model is introduced to obtain the transfer function of the oscillatory system. The instability of the oscillation is thereby determined by the two conjugate pole pairs of the transfer function. By analyzing the damping ratios of the two pole pairs, the parametric sensitivity of various circuit and device’s parameters on the two types of self-sustained oscillation are obtained. The analyses reveal the oscillatory criteria of the self-sustained oscillation for SiC MOSFETs. Based on the oscillatory criteria, necessary methods are proposed to prevent the oscillation. The proposed oscillation suppression methods are validated by the experiment at the end of the paper.