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A cost-effective SiC based hybrid switch and an improved inductor design procedure for boost converter in electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are presented in this paper. The feasibility of a hybrid switch using low power SiC MOSFET and high power Si IGBT is investigated to provide a cost-effective and failure-resistant method to employ the fast switching characteristics of SiC devices. The operation of the hybrid switch is tested in double pulse test experiment and compared with the single IGBT. Additionally, the boost inductor design is discussed, which allows the optimization of weight and power loss across different core materials. An improved powder core inductor design procedure is presented to avoid the iterative design procedure provided by the manufacture. Both the powder material and nanocrystalline material are considered in the inductor design procedure.

This paper introduces a promising approach for developing an integrated traction motor drive based on the Integrated Modular Motor Drive (IMMD) concept. The IMMD concept strives to meet aggressive power density and performance targets by modularizing both the machine and power electronics and then integrating them into a single combined machine-plus-drive structure. Physical integration of the power electronics inside the machine makes it highly desirable to increase the power electronics operating temperature including higher power semiconductor junction temperatures and improved device packaging. Recent progress towards implementing the IMMD concept in an integrated traction motor drive is summarized in this paper. Several candidate permanent magnet (PM) machine configurations with different numbers of phases between 3 and 6 are analyzed to compare their performance characteristics and key application features.