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This paper presents a new application of a vehicle on-board battery charger utilizing high frequency Silicon Carbide (SiC) power devices. SiC is one of the most promising alternatives to Silicon (Si) for power semiconductor devices due to its superior material characteristics such as lower on-state resistance, higher junction temperature, and higher switching frequency. An on-board charger prototype is developed demonstrating these advantages and a peak system efficiency of 95% is measured while operating with a switching frequency of 250 kHz. A maximum output power of 6.06 kW results in a gravimetric power density of 3.8 W/kg and a volumetric power density of 5.0 kW/L, which are about 10 times the densities compared with the current Prius Plug-In Si charger. SiC technology is indispensable to eco-friendly PHV/EV development.

The demands for high-performance power electronics systems are rapidly surpassing the power density, efficiency, and reliability limitations defined by the intrinsic properties of silicon (Si)-based semiconductors. The advantages of silicon carbide (SiC) are well known, including high temperature operation, high voltage blocking capability, high speed switching, and high energy efficiency. These advantages, however, are severely limited by conventional power packages, particularly at temperatures higher than 175°C and ≻100 kHz switching speeds. Here, APEI, Inc., presents the design process and testing data of its newly developed high performance HT-2000 SiC power module for extreme environment systems and applications.