Design of a high-efficient SiC-based interleaved voltage source converter

The paper deals with some peculiar aspects of the design of interleaved voltage source converter (IVSC) topology in high-power applications such as renewable energy systems and electric vehicles. The IVSC offers advantages like power sharing among multiple modules, improved power quality, redundancy, and fault tolerance. The design of an IVSC mainly involves the selection of the number of deployed converters and the choice of suitable semiconductor devices with the aim to reach a desired overall efficiency for an assigned operating condition. The paper develops an approach to characterize through a straightforward procedure the dependence of the IVSC' power losses on the number of the interlaced converters, on the employed semiconductor devices used and on a properly conceived set of key parameters which define the system operating conditions. The proposed methodology allows to highlight the system performance' dependence on the chosen power devices and it is showcased in this work by considering silicon carbide (SIC) devices with different current ratings. The main goal of the paper is to formulate a smart design procedure able to guide the configuration of an IVSC towards an optimal choice with respect to the power module rating, the number of interleaved levels, the system efficiency, and the output current waveforms. The proposed procedure has been experimentally validated.