Advanced analysis of transient overvoltage in electromechanical chain fed by SiC inverter

Overview & Synopsis

Key areas in the development of More Electrical Aircraft (MEA) are, currently, DC power distribution in higher voltage levels and the use of disruptive technology such as Wide BandGap (WBG) semiconductor. Using WBG components (SiC and GaN) increases the power converter mass density. However, fast switching of WBG components (tens of kV/µs) induces voltage transient overshoots due to parasitic coupling within the inverter. In addition, propagation and reflection phenomena along the harness, even for small lengths, cause voltage overshoots across the loads. Such overvoltage in an electromechanical chain (association of inverter, harness and motor) supplied by the new HVDC 540V aeronautical network could be fatal for the Electrical Insulation System (EIS). This paper proposes an accurate and fast model to predict overvoltage along a harness; it allows to analyze the impact of SiC inverter output voltage waveforms.