RegGuheert
Well-known member
It seems that where efficiency is important, the trend is away from Si IGBTs to SiC MOSFETs, at least in the voltage range at which the LEAF inverter operates. They are easier to drive and have lower switching losses than IGBTs. Here is a quote from the article:
So I wonder how long it will be before we can expect to see SiC power MOSFETs in the Nissan LEAF drivetrain as well as in other EVs. Perhaps it would take too many in parallel to be reasonable? I wonder how many IGBTs are in parallel at each location in the 3-phase H-bridge now.EETimes said:According to John Palmour, Cree founder and CTO, in typical applications, these SiC-based MOSFETS result in system efficiency gains of two percentage points; he noted that in one well-designed solar-inverter application at Fraunhofer Institute (Freiburg, Germany), efficiency increased from 96% to 98%, in an application where even fractions of a percent are considered vital.