Implementation of 1.7 kV silicon carbide metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors in auxiliary power supplies for industrial applications

An auxiliary power supply (Aux-PS) has become an essential component of electronic equipment for many industrial applications, such as in motor drives, photovoltaic (PV) inverters, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems and modular multilevel converters. The introduction of 1 700 V silicon carbide (SiC) metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) is useful for such applications, providing benefits with respect to a low on-state resistance, smaller package, low switching loss and single-switching implementation. A single end flyback Aux-PS is designed for industrial applications with a wide input voltage range using 1.7 kV SiC MOSFETs. The special design tradeoffs involved in the usage of SiC MOSFETs are discussed in detail, such as those with regard to gate driving voltage selection, isolation transformer design considerations, and clamping circuit design details. A 60 W demonstration hardware is developed and tested under different working conditions. The results verify the higher efficiency and better thermal performance of the proposed hardware relative to those of traditional Si solutions.