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Efficiency Optimization of Dual Active Bridge Converter Based on dV/dt Snubber Capacitors
This paper presents a lossless regenerative dV/dt snubber circuit for PWM converters to achieve high-efficiency high power-density without significant cost and reliability penalties. The dV/dt snubber employs lossless capacitors for each MOSFET device in a converter to provide an additional path to store the switching energy during turn-off transient and decrease the actual turn-off loss of the MOSFET channel. A novel mathematical turn-off loss model is built to separate the actual turn-off loss of the MOSFET channel and the recycling switching energy stored in the total equivalent output capacitance including Coss, the dV/dt snubber, and etc. Necessary snubber optimization strategy is proposed in order to balance the turn-off loss with ZVS operation range and deadtime conduction loss, and thereby achieving an optimal efficiency performance. To prove the validity and accuracy of the novel turn-off loss model and optimization strategy, the dV/dt snubber has been incorporated into a 1.3kV/200kW DC/DC and a 1kV/70kVA DC/AC PWM converters. Experimental results are given to demonstrate the validity of the proposed dV/dt snubber capacitors and optimization strategy.
A Novel Voltage Balancing Control With dv/dt Reduction for 10-kV SiC MOSFET-Based Medium Voltage Modular Multilevel Converter
Using high voltage (HV) silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductors in a modular multilevel converter (MMC) is promising because it results in fewer submodules and lower switching loss compared to conventional Si based solutions. The nearest level pulsewidth modulation (NL-PWM) is commonly used in the MMC for medium voltage applications. However, with the NL-PWM and existing voltage balancing control, there are many submodules that switch their modes in a control cycle, resulting in a high dv/dt during the deadtime of the power semiconductor, which could be multiple times of the dv/dt of the single device. This poses great challenges on the noise immunity and insulation design in the MMC using HV SiC devices, which have very fast switching speed. A novel voltage balancing control, which ensures only two submodules switch their modes in a control cycle, is proposed in this article, limiting the maximum dv/dt to the dv/dt of a single power semiconductor and also maintaining the voltage balance performance. Furthermore, the proposed voltage balancing control is experimentally validated in a 10-kV SiC mosfet based MMC with four submodules per arm.
Modeling and Mitigation of dv/dt and Transmission Line Effect for Motor Drive System in Electric Aircraft Propulsion
Due to constraints in space and structure as well as other practical limitations in aircraft system, the motor controller or electric motor are often installed far away from each other and interconnected via long cables. This amplifies the transmission line effect excited by the dv/dt PWM voltage and induces high voltage stress on the machine winding. This paper investigates the state-of-art modeling approaches for such systems, identifies several limitations in matching the tested voltage reflection waveform in terms of peak voltage, oscillation frequency and damping speed, and offers several key considerations not well covered in literature or in engineering practice. It then proposes a practical modeling methodology which, as validated by experimental results, truly captures these critical reflection voltage specs. To mitigate the high peak voltage and strong oscillation, dv/dt filter is applied and a parametric design optimization based on widely adopted LC-R topology is illustrated, which not only alleviates the voltage stress but also minimized the power loss of the passive damping resistor.
Power-switch dV/dt sensing
Simple means for controlling voltage risetime and powerline noise used three transistors and capacitive feedback. Rate of change of voltage across load is reduced and controlled by circuit. Circuit is useful in situations where large wire bundles are subject to noise and crosstalk due to rapid current switching.
Current Source Gate Driver for dV/dt Testing of SiC Power Devices.
Abstract not provided.
Current-Source Solid-State DC Transformer Integrating LVDC Microgrid, Energy Storage, and Renewable Energy Into MVDC Grid
Solid-state DC transformer to integrate low-voltage DC (LVDC) microgrid, wind turbine (WT) generator, photovoltaic (PV), and energy storage (ES) into medium-voltage (MV) direct-current (MVDC) distribution grids is attractive. This paper proposes current-source DC solid-state transformer (SST) for MVDC collection system in WT, PV, and ES farms or as an interface between the MVDC grid and the LVDC microgrid. Compared to conventional current-source converter (CSC) based SSTs, a switch reduction scheme on reverse-blocking device bridges is proposed to reduce device count and the number of devices on the DC-link current path. Importantly, the proposed switch reduction scheme is generic and can be applied to the DC ports of DC-AC, AC-DC, or DC-DC hard-switching or soft-switching CSC-based SSTs. Based on this scheme, the proposed current-source DC SSTs are derived, which have reduced electrolytic-capacitor-less DC-link. The proposed DC SSTs also achieve single-stage isolated DC-DC or DC-AC conversion, full-range zero-voltage switching (ZVS) for main switches, zero-current switching (ZCS) for resonant switches, and controlled dv/dt. The proposed DC SSTs, operating principles, predictive control method, the ZVS, and the controlled dv/dt under voltage buck-boost ranges are verified with MV simulations and an experimental prototype based on SiC MOSFETs, diodes, and a nanocrystalline transformer.
Next-Generation, High-temperature, High-frequency, High-efficiency, High-power-density Traction System
To meet performance and reliability requirements necessary for broader adoption of electric drive vehicles, the Electrical and Electronics Technical Team of the U.S. Drive partnership has established aggressive design goals for next-generation electric vehicle drivetrains. Specifically, the 2025 roadmap stipulates a 100 kW/L power density target and a $\$$2.7/kW cost target for power electronics, in addition to high-voltage operation (i.e., greater than 800 VDC). The additional targets for traction motor and the overall system performance impose further challenges on the power electronics design. For example, many high specific power machines have reduced iron content, and therefore reduced intrinsic filtering, thus requiring the inverter to supply a low-distortion drive current. These machines also typically have a high pole count, thus requiring drive current at a higher electrical frequency. Other motors, such as brush-less dc and switch reluctance machines, require a carefully-shaped, non-sinusoidal drive current (Yang, Shang, Brown, & Krishnamurthy, 2015), (Zhang, Bowman, O'Connel, & Haran, 2018), (Anderson, et al., 2018). Two- and three-level inverter topologies are the conventional framework for the power electronics design of the drivetrain, and some demonstrations have shown recent progress towards addressing cost, power density and efficiency goals (Gurpinar & Ozpineci, 2018), (Zhu, Kim, Chen, Erickson, & Maksimović, 2018), (Deshpande, Chen, Narayanasamy, Sathyanarayanan, & Luo, 2018), (Alizadeh, et al., 2019). However, an unconventional approach may be necessary to take the dramatic leap in power density necessitated by the roadmap—while simultaneously addressing the other system needs. Therefore, this project leverages the flying capacitor multilevel (FCML) topology, together with a scalable, modular approach, to address these needs. This type of hybrid converter has several advantages: lower voltage (i.e., less than 300 V) transistors can be used, energy-dense capacitors process most of the power, and the output current waveform is multilevel and exhibits a frequency multiplying effect—in other words, the output has reduced dv/dt and filtering requirements for the same high voltage dc bus. For example, in an electric vehicle with an 800 V bus, a 10-level FCML could leverage 100 V, commercially available GaN devices switching at 115 kHz to produce a ~1 MHz switching waveform (modulated according to the motor drive requirements) with one ninth of the dv/dt of a two-level converter. Prior work has already demonstrated promising performance and gravimetric power density figures for more electric aircraft applications (Pallo, Foulkes, Modeer, Coday, & Pilawa-Podgurski, 2018). This project leverages lessons learned to achieve the volumetric power density of 100 kW/L by employing advanced liquid cooling, address the 300,000 mile reliability challenge with redundant design, topology failure studies and online health monitoring, and reduce costs to $\$$2.7/kW through the use of low-cost GaN devices, modular converter assemblies, and modest modifications to traditional manufacturing methods. The project involved several hardware designs, each achieving increasing performance. At the conclusion of the project, a volumetric power density of 380 kW/L was achieved, in a 800V dc-ac converter, greatly surpassing even the aggressive target goal.
Study of dominating parameters of high speed solar plasma streams in relation to cosmic ray and geomagnetic storms
The high speed solar wind streams observed near Earth are generally associated with the solar features, such as solar flares and coronal holes. Past studies of these streams from the two sources have revealed distinctly different effects on cosmic ray intensity, whereas the effect is similar for geomagnetic disturbances. Moreover, the effect of the magnitude of the high speed streams (V) and its rate of increase (dv/dt) has also been a subject of investigation to understand their relative contribution in producing geomagnetic disturbances. From the analysis of some of the fast streams presented here, it is difficult to predict, which one of the two (V, dv/dt) is more effective in producing geo-magnetic disturbances. Further, in most of the cases, no substantial decrease in cosmic ray intensity is observed.
Mitral inertance in humans: critical factor in Doppler estimation of transvalvular pressure gradients
The pressure-velocity relationship across the normal mitral valve is approximated by the Bernoulli equation DeltaP = 1/2 rhoDeltav(2) + M. dv/dt, where DeltaP is the atrioventricular pressure difference, rho is blood density, v is transmitral flow velocity, and M is mitral inertance. Although M is indispensable in assessing transvalvular pressure differences from transmitral flow, this term is poorly understood. We measured intraoperative high-fidelity left atrial and ventricular pressures and simultaneous transmitral flow velocities by using transesophageal echocardiography in 100 beats (8 patients). We computed mean mitral inertance (M) by M = integral((DeltaP)-(1/2 x rho v(2))dt/integral(dv/dt)dt and we assessed the effect of the inertial term on the transmitral pressure-flow relation. ranged from 1.03 to 5.96 g/cm(2) (mean = 3.82 +/- 1.22 g/cm(2)). DeltaP calculated from the simplified Bernoulli equation (DeltaP = 1/2. rhov(2)) lagged behind (44 +/- 11 ms) and underestimated the actual peak pressures (2.3 +/- 1.1 mmHg). correlated with left ventricular systolic pressure (r = -0.68, P < 0.0001) and transmitral pressure gradients (r = 0.65, P < 0.0001). Because mitral inertance causes the velocity to lag significantly behind the actual pressure gradient, it needs to be considered when assessing diastolic filling and the pressure difference across normal mitral valves.
Inverter Output Filter Effect on PWM Motor Drives of a Flywheel Energy Storage System
NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has been involved in the research and development of high speed flywheel systems for small satellite energy storage and attitude control applications. One research and development area has been the minimization of the switching noise produced by the pulsed width modulated (PWM) inverter that drives the flywheel permanent magnet motor/generator (PM M/G). This noise can interfere with the flywheel M/G hardware and the system avionics hampering the full speed performance of the flywheel system. One way to attenuate the inverter switching noise is by placing an AC filter at the three phase output terminals of the inverter with the filter neutral point connected to the DC link (DC bus) midpoint capacitors. The main benefit of using an AC filter in this fashion is the significant reduction of the inverter s high dv/dt switching and its harmonics components. Additionally, common mode (CM) and differential mode (DM) voltages caused by the inverter s high dv/dt switching are also reduced. Several topologies of AC filters have been implemented and compared. One AC filter topology consists of a two-stage R-L-C low pass filter. The other topology consists of the same two-stage R-L-C low pass filter with a series connected trap filter (an inductor and capacitor connected in parallel). This paper presents the analysis, design and experimental results of these AC filter topologies and the comparison between the no filter case and conventional AC filter.
Voltage reapplication rate control for commutation of thyristors
A circuit for commutating a thyristor (21) by shunting its current for a minimum interval, thereby removing sustaining voltage to said thyristor, then subsequently restoring voltage to said thyristor at a predetermined rate, utilizes a series combination of a commutation electronic switch (22) and an isolated dc voltage supply (23) connected in parallel with the thyristor. The voltage supply is arranged with a polarity that permits the current flowing through the thyristor in one direction to be bypassed through the series combination while the commutation switch is turned on and to reverse bias the thyristor when the commutation switch is fully on. A dv/dt control circuit (24) limits the rate of rise of voltage across the commutation switch (22) as it is turned off in response to a command input signal. The dv/dt control circuit is comprised of a constant current drive (31) and a capacitor (32) connected between the output terminal of the commutation switch and the control input terminal of the commutation switch. The thyristor may be a triac (40) with two commutation switches (42, 43), one for current of each polarity, or with a single commutation switch (55) and a bridge circuit (52-55) for selecting the polarity of the switch (56).
Reliability Effects of Surge Current Testing of Solid Tantalum Capacitors
Solid tantalum capacitors are widely used in space applications to filter low-frequency ripple currents in power supply circuits and stabilize DC voltages in the system. Tantalum capacitors manufactured per military specifications (MIL-PRF-55365) are established reliability components and have less than 0.001% of failures per 1000 hours (the failure rate is less than 10 FIT) for grades D or S, thus positioning these parts among electronic components with the highest reliability characteristics. Still, failures of tantalum capacitors do happen and when it occurs it might have catastrophic consequences for the system. This is due to a short-circuit failure mode, which might be damaging to a power supply, and also to the capability of tantalum capacitors with manganese cathodes to self-ignite when a failure occurs in low-impedance applications. During such a failure, a substantial amount of energy is released by exothermic reaction of the tantalum pellet with oxygen generated by the overheated manganese oxide cathode, resulting not only in destruction of the part, but also in damage of the board and surrounding components. A specific feature of tantalum capacitors, compared to ceramic parts, is a relatively large value of capacitance, which in contemporary low-size chip capacitors reaches dozens and hundreds of microfarads. This might result in so-called surge current or turn-on failures in the parts when the board is first powered up. Such a failure, which is considered as the most prevalent type of failures in tantalum capacitors [I], is due to fast changes of the voltage in the circuit, dV/dt, producing high surge current spikes, I(sub sp) = Cx(dV/dt), when current in the circuit is unrestricted. These spikes can reach hundreds of amperes and cause catastrophic failures in the system. The mechanism of surge current failures has not been understood completely yet, and different hypotheses were discussed in relevant literature. These include a sustained scintillation breakdown model [1-3]; electrical oscillations in circuits with a relatively high inductance [4-6]; local overheating of the cathode [5,7, 8]; mechanical damage to tantalum pentoxide dielectric caused by the impact of MnO2 crystals [2,9, 10]; or stress-induced-generation of electron traps caused by electromagnetic forces developed during current spikes [11]. A commonly accepted explanation of the surge current failures is that at unlimited current supply during surge current conditions, the self-healing mechanism in tantalum capacitors does not work, and what would be a minor scintillation spike if the current were limited, becomes a catastrophic failure of the part [l, 12]. However, our data show that the scintillation breakdown voltages are significantly greater that the surge current breakdown voltages, so it is still not clear why the part, which has no scintillations, would fail at the same voltage during surge current testing (SCT).
AC and DC Fault Management for Megawatt Electrified Aircraft Electrical Powertrains - Task 2: Power Quality Filtering Using Nanocrystalline Soft Magnetic Inductor
The NASA RTAPS program on AC and DC Fault Management for Megawatt Electrified Power Train is a multi-year joint project with Pratt & Whitney (P&W), Collins Aerospace (CA), and RTX Technology Research Center (RTRC). This research program focuses on the high-voltage distribution issues that present a significant technological obstacle in the adoption of Electrified Aviation Propulsion (EAP) systems. One challenge to the adoption of high-voltage distribution systems with power electronic converters is the need for filter elements to limit the generation and propagation of noise, protect the cable systems from premature aging and prevent against excessive heating within subcomponents due to high-frequency induced currents. While increased distribution voltages aide in reducing the cable mass for a fixed power system, the associated mass with the filtering elements for power electronic converter can grow with increasing distribution voltages – thereby mitigating any benefit associated with increasing the distribution system voltage. To enable high-voltage distribution systems with high system specific power densities, new magnetic materials must be developed. Therefore, the second task of the NASA RTAPS program is associated with the design and application of advanced soft magnetic components for Megawatt class electric propulsion systems, specifically the motor drive system. This report covers the collaborative work between NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC), RTRC, P&W and CA in the development of three types of magnetic components over the span of the three-year program. These critical magnetic components are the DC side EMI filter, which limits the propagation of harmful electromagnetic noise to the rise of the distribution system, and the AC side damping with the dv/dt filter, which limits the fast rise time of the power electronic converter output voltage to limit the degradation on the cable/motor insulation systems. Each of these components are investigated from component level design and are optimized at the system level with a combined modelling and testing effort. In the final experimental evaluation of the NASA developed soft magnetic material with a dv/dt filter, a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) magnetic core and the GRC magnetic core are optimized and loaded at 320Arms to evaluate their difference in performance. After a run time of 30 minutes in a MW-class motor driver at RTRC, the NASA GRC cores were found to not only offer a lower temperature rise of nearly 25°𝐶, but also a reduction in measured core loss of 25% (12.75W to 9.5W).
Modular Isolated Soft-Switching Medium Voltage String Inverter for Large-Scale PV Farm
This paper presents a single-stage modular isolated soft-switching medium voltage string inverter (MVSI) with tri-port configuration to interconnect PV and storage to medium voltage (MV) grid. The modular MVSI provides advanced functionalities such as energy storage elements integration without additional converters, connection to MV grid resulting in lower distribution losses in the PV farm, high-frequency galvanic isolation, independent control of PV, storage and grid power, high modularity and scalability. The topology of the MVSI, operation principle and model-predictive priority-switching (MPPS) control to achieve fast dynamic balancing across stacked modules are discussed. The independent power control is validated in PLECS simulation and the operation of stacked MVSI with MPPS control is verified through Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation. Here, the hardware prototype of 25 kVA MVSI building block is developed. 18 kW experimental results of single building block verifying tri-ports operation and 20 kW experimental results of two modules stacked operation are presented. A clean sinusoidal waveform with negligibly low THD in both tests is obtained. A low dv/dt of <; 1kV/us and soft-switching are achieved.
Medium Voltage (13.8 kV) Transformer-less Grid-Connected DC/AC Converter Design and Demonstration Using 10 kV SiC MOSFETs
Medium voltage (MV) power converters using high voltage (HV) Silicon Carbide (SiC) power semiconductors result in great benefits in weight, size, efficiency and control bandwidth. However, challenges still exist on the components design considering HV insulation and noise immunity requirements in the MV SiC based power converter. A 5-level MMC based transformer-less grid-connected dc/ac converter is developed for 13.8 kV medium voltage grid using 10 kV SiC MOSFETs. The key components, including gate driver with high dv/dt immunity and fast reliable protection, isolated power supply with low parasitic capacitance, voltage/current sensors with high noise immunity, and passives following related insulation standard are provided. A 25 kV dc-link phase-leg is demonstrated, and the experimental results are presented.
Design of Auxiliary Circuit Elements for Achieving Zero Voltage Switching in a Wireless Power Transfer System
The auxiliary resonant commutated pole (ARCP) is being used to achieve zero voltage switching (ZVS) of power switches for improved efficiency and/or to reduce dv/dt at the switch node for better electromagnetic interference (EMI) performance and overall system reliability. This paper shows how an ARCP circuit can be used in a wireless power transfer system to achieve ZVS. Detailed analysis of ARCP circuit operation is presented to determine the requirements for achieving ZVS in the main switches of a wireless electric vehicle charging system. Based on this analysis, a design algorithm is developed to optimize the design of the ZVS assisting circuit components. The designed ARCP achieves soft switching of the MOSFETs in the primary inverter of an 85 kHz, 10 kW series-series compensated, stationary wireless power transfer system.