This work reports on the steps taken to evaluate a commercially available, half-bridge gate-driver board that is considered as a possible subcomponent of a 60-kW class inverter. Initial results validate the board?s operation at the expected frequency while switching a silicon-carbide (SiC), half-bridge, metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) module at elevated voltage and current levels with a simulated load. The board was successfully tested at 100 kHz, at room temperature, while driving a 1.7-kV, 8.0-mΩ, SiC module in a half-bridge circuit under various loading conditions. For a supply voltage of 600 V and a load of 25 Ω, for example, the maximum temperature recorded on the board was 55.2 ℃ with a ΔT of 33.9 ℃. The preliminary thermal tests presented here, although not conclusive, suggest the gate-driver board can be used for the intended application without any modifications to the onboard components and without the need of additional cooling hardware.
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