Efficiency investigations of a 3kW T-type inverter for switching frequencies up to 100 kHz

This paper deals with a 3kW multilevel inverter used for PV applications. A comparison has been made based on simulations using IGBTs and SiC MOSFETs to see how much efficiency can be gained when SiC diodes are used. A prototype with the same IGBTs and SiC MOSFETs has been built but using regular soft-recovery Si diodes instead of SiC diodes. Efficiencies and switching transitions for different switching frequencies up to 100 kHz have been measured. Thermal investigations of both IGBTs and SiC MOSFETs have been conducted to analyze the feasibility of increased switching frequencies. When SiC MOSFETs are used in combination with Si diodes, switching frequencies could be doubled achieving the same efficiencies than the IGBT converter.