Comprehensive evaluation on efficiency and thermal loading of associated Si and SiC based PV inverter applications

This paper deals with the design, control, efficiency and thermal cycling estimation of associated Si and SiC based three-phase PV-inverters. A novel Electro-Thermal Model able to consider the thermal coupling within the Transistor and Diode integrated on the same package is proposed. For each topology, three different cases study are simulated, according to the heatsink repartition: one-leg heatsink, shared heatsink and individual heatsink. Based on the model, it has been determined the minimum required heatsink thermal impedance in order not to overpass the device physically thermal limitations. Finally, simulation results are analyzed in order to decide which topology has a higher efficiency and a better thermal loading distribution within the devices.