Performance Analysis of a Three-Phase Propulsion Inverter for Electric Vehicles Using GaN Semiconductor Devices

The impact of GaN MOSFET and the performance of three-phase traction inverter for electric vehicles are closely investigated in this paper. Two versions of inverter have been illustrated: first one with Si-IGBTs, whereas the second one is built with GaN-MOSFETs with similar rating of voltage and current. The loss model is expounded for both the inverters; thereafter total losses are calculated considering New European Driving Cycle profile along the speed and torque of the permanent magnet synchronous motors. Further, for close-loop operation of propulsion drive, predictive current controller is proposed and compared with conventional PI controller while to control the speed, only PI controller is used. Moreover, the losses of both types of inverters are compared and the compared result confirmed that the inverter built up with GaN-MOSFETs with proposed current controller increases the efficiency of the propulsion drive leads to enhancement in driving range of the vehicles.