SiC Three-Level Neutral-Point-Clamped Converter With Clamping Diode Volume Reduction Using Quasi-Two-Level Operation

Medium voltage SiC MOSFETs have recently garnered considerable attention in the medium-voltage high-power areas like high-frequency solid-state transformers and multilevel converters. While direct series connection of these MOSFETs is an option for higher voltage levels, it requires complex voltage balancing approaches for device voltage balancing during fast switching transients. Alternatively, converter-level solutions such as the three-level (3L) neutral-point-potential converter can be used. This article proposes a new modulation strategy, combining 3L, and Quasi-two-level modulations, to minimize the rating and volume of clamping diodes by tightly controlling the thermal stress on the diodes. This approach achieves better efficiency, higher power density, and a simpler converter bus-structure to stack two SiC MOSFETs effectively in series. We present a real-time clamping diode loss estimation to improve the effectiveness of the proposed modulation strategy. To verify the proposed converter-level approach and modulation strategy, we test a 20 kV rated phase-leg with two 10 kV SiC MOSFETs and 3.3 kV SiC diodes.