Protection Circuitry Design to Mitigate Failure Propagation for 10 kV SiC MOSFETs in a 22 kV DC 13.8 kV AC Flying Capacitor Multilevel Converter
- Resource Type
- Conference
- Authors
- Mendes, Arthur; Nam, David; Lin, Xiang; Stewart, Joshua; Fan, Boran; Dong, Dong; Burgos, Rolando
- Source
- 2023 IEEE 24th Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics (COMPEL) Control and Modeling for Power Electronics (COMPEL), 2023 IEEE 24th Workshop on. :1-8 Jun, 2023
- Subject
- Components, Circuits, Devices and Systems
Power, Energy and Industry Applications
Multilevel converters
MOSFET
Silicon carbide
Capacitors
Silicon
Power electronics
Topology
Flying Capacitors Multilevel Converters (FCML)
Multicell Converter
Protection
Short-Circuit Fault
SiC MOSFET
TVS diode
Flashover Fault
- Language
- ISSN
- 2151-1004
The operation and failure modes of the flying capacitor multilevel converter topology are well-known and the protections for Si IGBT-based converters are well established. However, when it comes to high voltage SiC MOSFET-based converters there are some particularities that must be evaluated: shorter energy withstanding time, higher dv/dt and higher insulation stress. This paper provides an assessment of the failure modes for a 7-level 13.8 kV AC 22 kV DC 1.1 MVA three-phase flying capacitor converter using 10 kVSiC MOSFETs, an analysis of the fault propagation mechanism between cells and the design of a transient voltage suppressor (TVS) diode-based protection module to prevent it.