4
High-Power
Silicon Carbide Inverter Design—SatCon Technology Corporation, 27
Drydock Avenue, Boston, MA 02210-2377; 617-897-2400, http://www.satcon.com
Dr. Leo Casey,
Principal Investigator, leo.casey@satcon.com
Mr. David Eisenhaure,
Business Official, appliedtech.info@satcon.com
DOE Grant No.
DE-FG02-05ER84165
Amount: $99,941
The
size and weight of Power Conversion Circuitry, needed for the transmission
and distribution of electricity, is dominated by the reactive components and
the heat removal system. The key to
reducing the energy storage and filtering requirements, along with the heat
dissipated, is the development and applciation of improved switching devices
that permit efficient, high-frequency, high-temperture operation. The most mature of the Wide Band Gap (WBG)
device technologies is silicon carbide (SiC) technology, for which commercial
devices are now appearing. This project
will design and construct a SiC based inverter, at a nominal 100kW power level,
and develop circuit topology, control, thermal design, advanced passives, and
integrated packaging, all of which will be appropriate for SiC. Phase I will
evaluate and choose a candidate SiC power device, select a power topology that will
fully utilize the device, design contol and thermal systems, select passive
device technology, run the system with thermal simulations, and develop a
conceptual mechanical design for the SiC inverter.
Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee: All power conversion
circuitry should benefit from the improvements in weight, size, efficiency,
robustness, and system reliability enabled by SiC power device technology. Once the technology is successfully
commecialized it should become ubiquitous in the power conversion arena. At sufficient production volume, SiC based
conversion systems should ultiamtely be cheaper than their Silicon counterparts.