Latest power devices for photovoltaic inverters

Excellent electrical properties of latest power devices for improving the efficiency of PV inverters are presented. Power modules using SiC-MOSFET and -SBD exhibit the possibility to realize PV inverters with peak efficiency beyond 99.0%. Silicon IGBT modules using RB-IGBT have enabled to mass-produce PV inverters with peak efficiency of 98.4%. Silicon SJ-MOSFET and discrete IGBT have enabled to improve the efficiency of small power PV inverters by 0.5 point.