A 100-kW SiC Switched Tank Converter for Transportation Electrification

This article presents a 100-kW switched tank converter (STC) using SiC mosfets for transportation power electronic systems. This bidirectional dc-dc converter targets 300-600 V voltage conversion. Total semiconductor loss index has been proposed to evaluate topology and device technologies. The boost converter and one-cell STC have been fairly compared by utilizing this index. The STC design procedures, including SiC mosfet, heat sink, resonant tank components, and dc capacitors, are explained in detail. The simulation results of a 100-kW one-cell STC working at zero-current switching mode have been provided. A 100-kW first-generation hardware prototype using 1200 V, 600 A SiC power module has been built and tested. The power density of the main circuit is about 42 kW/L. The desirable thermal performance of the hardware prototype is demonstrated, which is consistent with the theoretical design. The measured efficiency reaches peak 98.7% at around 30 kW, about 98.5% at 50 kW, and 97.4% at 100 kW full load.