Benefits and advantages of using SiC

This paper investigates the benefits of silicon-carbide (SiC) technology over to traditional silicon IGBTs, in traction inverters used to control the traction electric motor in electric (EV) and hybrid-electric (HEV) vehicles. In this context, the choice of semiconductor can significantly impact efficiency, power density, and cooling requirements. Until now, automotive power stages including traction inverters have been widely addressed with discrete IGBTs or with large multi-chip modules. However, the advantageous properties of wide band-gap materials mean that SiC MOSFETs can successfully replace silicon IGBTs in automotive power stages. In this paper, we use the dynamic characterization results to compare EV traction inverter platform based on SiC MOSFET with an equivalent system using Si IGBTs.