A hybrid semiconductor device for medium-voltage DC-DC converters : the combination of thyristor and transistor technologies

• Ein hybrides Halbleiterbauelement für Mittelspannungs-DC/DC-Wandler : Die Kombination von Thyristor- und Transistortechnologien

Teichrib, Jakob; de Doncker, Rik W. (Thesis advisor); Huang, Alex Q. (Thesis advisor)

1. Auflage. - Aachen : E.ON Energy Research Center, RWTH Aachen University (2022)
Book, Dissertation / PhD Thesis

In: E.ON Energy Research Center : PGS, Power Generation and Storage Systems 111
Page(s)/Article-Nr.: 1 Online-Ressource : Illustrationen, Diagramme

Dissertation, RWTH Aachen University, 2021

Abstract

Today’s power electronic converters depend heavily on the power semiconductor devices used. Lower losses in these components would primarily allow an increase in transmitted power, which in turn increases profitability and performance of the converters. Additionally, with lower switching losses, the switching frequency could be increased, resulting in a size reduction of passive components and decrease of required filtering effort. The objective of this work is to investigate a combination of devices based on thyristor and transistor technologies for the application of medium-voltage dc-dc converters. More precisely, a hybrid concept consisting of an integrated emitter turn-off (IETO) thyristor and an insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) is being pursued. The former has low conduction loss, while the latter has the goal to enable lower switching losses when controlled with an appropriate switching sequence. First, the concept and all related aspects regarding structure and control are highlighted. This includes a description of the package, gate drive unit (GDU), the semiconductors, as well as recommendations for their selection and design. The hybrid concept is demonstrated by a prototype that integrates all semiconductors in one package. The design and manufacturing process of the prototype and the control boards is presented in detail. To evaluate the concept, the prototype is examined electrically and mechanically. For this purpose, a corresponding test environment was created, which is described in terms of methodology and setup. It is shown that an appropriately chosen IETO reduces conduction loss, while an IGBT can reduce turn-off loss. Furthermore, it is shown that the internal parasitic inductance exerts a less severe influence than initially assumed. This suggests that highly integrated approaches are not necessarily required for the lower-loss goal pursued by this concept. Due to the scarce availability of suitable components, a device simulation is additionally conducted with device parameters that are optimized for the concept. The data of prototype measurements and device simulations are used in a simulation of a medium-voltage dc-dc converter. While with the prototype an improvement of the system efficiency could not be achieved, with the simulated devices the overall losses show a significant improvement.