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Energy Procedia 103 (2016) 298 – 303

Applied Energy Symposium and Forum, REM2016: Renewable Energy Integration

with Mini/Microgrid, 19-21 April 2016, Maldives

Efficiency and Current Harmonics Comparison Between SiC

and Si Based Inverters for Microgrids
Feida Chena, Xiaofeng Dinga *, Ehtisham Lodhia
a
School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering, BeiHang University, Beijing 100191, China

Abstract

With the expanding power demands and increasing use of renewable energy resources, microgrids have been widely
supported. The wide bandgap semiconductor devices with higher blocking voltage capabilities and higher switching
speed such as silicon carbide (SiC) devices will become a critical component in building the microgrid. In this paper,
the power loss and current harmonics of both Si-IGBT and SiC-MOSFET based inverters are investigated and
compared in low voltage (LV) microgrid applications, respectively. And the experimental results show that the
application of SiC devices greatly increases the energy efficiency and improves the power quality in microgrid.
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Selection and/or
Peer-review peer-reviewofunder
under responsibility responsibility
the scientific of of
committee REM2016
the Applied Energy Symposium and Forum,
REM2016: Renewable Energy Integration with Mini/Microgrid.
Keywords: microgrid; silicon carbide (SiC); power loss; current harmonics; filter

1. Introduction

The microgrid is a new concept for utilizing the distributed power generators that gathers or aggregates
distributed energy resources and loads in the local area. Microgrids are getting popular due to their inherent
advantage in integrating renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind and wave [1]. Fig.1 shows the
schematic illustration of a typical microgrid structure which includes integrating renewable energy sources,
transform circuits and AC or DC load. And power semiconductors are widely applied to the electrical
energy transformation, transfer and storage of distributed generation sources. However, power converters
with silicon (Si) switches are too bulky and inefficient to be used in the microgrid system. The development

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-10-82317304; fax: +86-10-82317304.

E-mail address: [email protected] (X. Ding).

1876-6102 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Applied Energy Symposium and Forum, REM2016: Renewable Energy Integration
with Mini/Microgrid.
doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2016.11.289
 Feida Chen et al. / Energy Procedia 103 (2016) 298 – 303 299

of high-voltage power devices based on silicon carbide (SiC) will be a critical component in building the
microgrid [2]. In addition, as mircogrids are close to load, the harmonics caused by nonlinear load and
power electronic equipment in mircogrid cannot be ignored. As a typical power electronic device, the
switching behavior of MOSFETs or IGBTs will cause lots of harmonic components, having a side effect
on safe and stable operation of microgrids system.

Solar

DC/DC

Grid
Wind

AC/DC AC load
DC/AC

DC load

accumulator

Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of a typical microgrid structure

The physics and technology of high voltage (>10 kV) 4H-SiC power devices, namely MOSFETs and
IGBTs are discussed [2]. Some researches have considered the applications of SiC devices in microgrids
[3, 4]. Moreover, ref [4] indicate that the advantages of wide bandgap (WBG) power devices over traditional
silicon power devices primarily arise from superiorly electrical and thermal performances of WBG
semiconductors compared to silicon. But comprehensive comparisons of power loss and harmonics of
current between SiC devices and Si based inverters are rarely mentioned. References [5], [6], [7] describe
the details of the filter design method, and reference [7] indicate the loss and efficiency for SiC-based VFDs
with and without filter, but the filters for Si and SiC systems are not compared.
This paper presents comprehensive comparisons between SiC and Si based inverters used in mircogrid,
particularly from power loss and current harmonics. An analytical model of loss for SiC is developed firstly,
taking thermal into account. And the analytical model is validated by experiments. Then, the current
harmonics caused by SiC and Si inverters are investigated through experiments. Compared with Si based
inverter, the inverter based on SiC manifests higher efficiency and lower current harmonics due to its
outstanding characteristics. According to the high frequency and low current harmonics of SiC, the filter
value can be significantly reduced. In conclusion, using SiC power devices can reduce the system size and
cost, increase the energy efficiency and improve the power quality for mircogrids.

2. Inverter Power Loss

Taking the three-phase inverter as an example to compare performance between SiC and Si based
inverters. The simplified schematic of inverter is shown in Fig.2. It is a typical photovoltaic inverter system
that includes Solar panel, inverter, output filter and AC load.
In order to show the advantages of SiC-MOSFETs inverter, a quantitative power loss analysis is obtained
based on the primary electrical characteristics parameters. The power loss of an inverter consists of two
parts, conduction loss and switching loss. In the calculation shown below, the switching loss of diode is
neglected, because it is much smaller comparing to the switching loss of IGBTs or MOSFETs. Although
different switch devices are used in the two systems, the calculation methods are identical. In this paper,
the perform of Cree 1200V 300A SiC MOSFET (CAS120M12BM2) will be investigated and compared
with Infineon 600V 300A Silicon IGBT (FF300R06KE3).
300 Feida Chen et al. / Energy Procedia 103 (2016) 298 – 303

Converter Inverter Filter

Grid
Solar

Load

Fig. 2. The simplified schematic of inverter

2.1. Switching loss

Ideal waveforms during the switching transition are shown in Fig. 3. UGS is the voltage across gate to
source, UDS is the voltage across drain to source. ID is the channel current through the SiC MOSFET.

Turn-on Period Turn-off Period

UGS

UDS t

I Rds(on)

ID t

0 t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 t6 t7 t8 t9 t

Fig. 3. Ideal switching transition waveforms

The switching loss of SiC MOSFET include two parts, namely turn-on loss and turn-off loss. The
switching losses can be expressed as:
1
Psw =fs VDD ID(T) ×[൫Rg +Ron ൯Ciss ln -
IDS(MAX)
VTH +
gFS
1-
VGS (1)
1 Crss ൫Rg +Ron ൯൫VDS -IDሺTሻ RDSሺONሻ ൯
൫Rg +Ron ൯Ciss ln + ]
V IDSሺMAXሻ
1- TH V GS -VTH -
VGS gFS

2.2. Conduction loss

The conduction loss of a SiC MOSFET depends on the on state resistance RDS(on) of the MOSFET, thus, the
conduction loss expression is as simple as equation (2). Where ‫ܫ‬୰୫ୱ average value of the current through
the MOSFET, RDS(on) is positive proportional to the temperature.
ܲୡ୭୬ ൌ ‫ܫ‬୰୫ୱ ଶ ൈ ܴୈୗሺ୭୬ሻ (2)
 Feida Chen et al. / Energy Procedia 103 (2016) 298 – 303 301

2.3. Experimental results

The input energy of inverter is supplied by a 270V variable DC power supply. Fig. 4 (a) and (b) illustrate
the power loss and energy conversion efficiency of the two inverters, respectively. Obviously, SiC-
MOSFETs based inverter presents lower power loss and higher efficiency compared with Si-IGBTs based
inverter at 270V DC bus. The application of SiC devices will greatly reduce the power loss and improve
the efficiency of the microgrid systems. This opens up opportunities for greater system design optimization,
such as determining the smallest possible power converter volume and weight.

(a) (b)

Fig. 4. (a) Power loss comparison of Si-IGBT and SiC-MOSFETs based inverters at 270V DC bus
(b) Efficiency comparison of Si-IGBT and SiC-MOSFETs based inverters at 270V DC bus

3. Harmonics of Current

The phase currents of SiC-MOSFETs based inverter and Si-IGBTs based inverter are measured and
compared by experiments, respectively. Fig.5 and Fig. 6 shows the current waveforms of Si-IGBTs and
SiC-MOSFETs based inverter. Compared with Si-IGBTs based inverter, the harmonics components in
phase current of the inverter based on SiC MOSFET is smaller due to high switching speed, lower on-
resistance and smaller output capacitance.

Fig. 5. The current waveforms of Si-IGBTs based inverter

302 Feida Chen et al. / Energy Procedia 103 (2016) 298 – 303

Fig. 6. The current waveforms of SiC-MOSFETs based inverter

4. Strategy for Output Filter

Compared with Si IGBT, SiC MOSFET can operate at higher switching frequency, which will
significantly reduce the filter value. Meanwhile, smaller current harmonics of the inverter based on SiC
MOSFET produces better power quality. The filters are designed and compared based on SiC-MOSFETs
inverter and Si-IGBTs inverter.
4.1. Filter design

An output sine wave filter based on the methodology detailed in reference [6], is designed. The resonance
frequency equation can be expressed as:
ͳ
݂୰ =  (3)
ʹߨඥ‫ܮ‬୊ ‫ܥ‬୊

It is clear that higher resonant frequency selection yields much lower value for the inductance and
capacitance. Ref [8] indicates that the resonance frequency should be higher than 10 times of the output
frequency and can be chosen among one-fifth to one-tenth of the carrier frequency. In addition, the volume
and weight of the filter mainly decided by inductance. The value of filter inductance can be expressed as:

߱ ܷ ଶ ߱ ଷܷ ଶ
ሺ ଵ ଶ଴ ൅ ଵ ଴ ሻ
ඩ ߱୐ ߱୐ (4)
‫ܮ‬୊ = 
߱ଵ ‫ܫ‬଴ ଶ

4.2. Filter Comparison

Since the SiC MOSFET can operate at a higher switching frequency, the switching frequency of 30 kHz
for SiC MOSFET and 10 kHz for SiC IBGT are chosen. Meanwhile the output frequency is 50 Hz, and the
rated current and voltage is 24A and 220V. The result of the filter design is shown in Table 1.

Table 1. The filter value for Si-IGBTs system and SiC-MOSFETs system

Si SiC
resonance frequency 2 kHz 6 kHz
filter inductance 0.7mH 0.35mH
filer capacitance 9ȝF 2ȝF
 Feida Chen et al. / Energy Procedia 103 (2016) 298 – 303 303

It is obvious that the filter used in SiC-MOSFETs system has much value for the inductance and
capacitance. As a consequence, the size and weight of the filer used in SiC-MOSFETs system is smaller
than Si-IGBT system.

5. Conclusion

This paper discussed the power loss and harmonics of the inverter based on SiC-MOSFETs and
compared with Si-IGBT based inverter. The experimental results show that SiC devices can increase
efficiency of microgrids. Meanwhile, compared with Si inverters, the SiC-MOSFET inverter has less
harmonic current in microgrids, which are measured and validated through an experiment. In addition,
compared with the filter designed for Si system, the filter used in SiC-MOSFETs system has lower value
to reduce the system size. Due to the ability to increase the energy efficiency and improve the power quality,
the SiC devices are expected to be broadly applicable for microgrids.

6. Copyright

Authors keep full copyright over papers published in Energy Procedia

References

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Xiaofeng Ding received the B.S., M.S., and D.S. degrees in electrical engineering from
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China, in 2005, 2008, and 2011,
respectively. From 2008 to 2010, he was a visiting scholar with the University of
Michigan-Dearborn, Dearborn, MI, USA. Since 2012, he is a Lecturer with the
Department of Electrical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China. His research
interests include permanent magnet machines, motor drives, mircogrid and silicon
carbide (SiC) devices.