Magnetic design of a 3-phase SiC-based PV inverter with DC-link referenced output filter BY
ALEJANDRO RUJAS1,2, ITSASNE LANDABURU1, VICTOR M. LOPEZ-MARTIN1 AND OSCAR
BARAMBONES2,
1IKERLAN
Technology Research Centre, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Arrasate-Mondragon, Basque Country, Spain (e-mail:
arujas@ikerlan.es)
2
Departament of Automatic Control and System Engineering, Engineering School, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Vitoria, Basque Country, Spain
This work was supported in part by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme funding, under the grant
agreement number 783158
ABSTRACT
The use of Silicon carbide (SiC) devices represents an improvement in terms of size, weight
and efficiency of power converters. However, SiC-based solutions present high dv/dt and di/dt on the
switching events, increasing the common-mode noise injected into the grid. To reduce the common-mode
noise, three-phase inverters with a DC-link referenced output filter are widely considered in photovoltaic
(PV) inverters connected to the grid. However, if the filter is DC-link referenced the inductor ripple is larger,
and this must be considered for the AC inductor filter design. This work shows, on a PV inverter, the impact
of that DC-link referenced filter on the current ripple of the inductor, and the improvement achieved with
the use of SiC devices, increasing the switching frequency. A comparison in terms of weight, size, losses
and materials costs is presented for different core materials and configurations.