Experimental investigation on a cascode-based three-phase inverter for AC drives

Abstract

High speed electrical drives and machines represent a promising solution to cope with the increasing electrification in several fields, e.g. industrial electronics and mobility. According to that, power electronics is going more and more towards innovative technologies of semiconductor devices, such as Gallium-Nitride (GaN) and Silicon-Carbide (SiC), providing the opportunity of faster switching transients and therefore of higher switching frequencies. A challenging perspective is represented by gaining higher and higher switching frequencies while keeping high voltage and low power losses. In this scenario, the Cascode (CC) configuration can represent a reliable solution in order to reach notable levels of dV/dt without losing efficiency. In this paper, a three-phase Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) inverter based on a CC connection for each of its six switches is proposed and some promising experimental results are provided. SiC technology has been used for each power MOSFET.