The activities of the first project period focused on the elaboration of the requirements and intended features of the converter system as well as the design of all relevant components and parts of the converter. Based on this, the converter and its components as well as the modelling tools and test benches were developed and validated in the 2nd period. For further information on the technical work and achievements, see WP summaries below.
WP 1, Requirements and specifications:
- Definition of the system requirements, intended features and key parameters for the system and its components, condition monitoring and the thermal management,
- Development of a representative mission profile to enable component sizing and analysis.
WP 2, System design and concepts:
Main achievement was the design and of the power modules according to the requirements, with the following characteristics:
- Optimal thermal and electrical performance,
- Low power losses, low number of components, weight, cost and manufacturability,
- 2-level topology,
- 3D packaging with highly reliable interconnection technologies for optimized volume and switching,
- Integration of passive components and sensors for current and temperature monitoring,
- Innovative gate drive concept with improved switching performance and feasibility,
- Concepts for modular building blocks for different system configurations and requirements.
WP 3, Simulation and modelling:
- Comprehensive suite of tools and methodologies for detailed simulations of all major aspects of the SiC converter,
- Detailed analysis of the thermal behaviour of the cooling system and accurate models for temperature estimations in different operating conditions
- Thermal models for the simulation of three-dimensional temperature distributions
WP 4, Hardware integration:
Design, development and validation of
- Module assembly and interconnection technologies for optimal layout,
- EMI filter designs and concepts,
- Planar interconnect technology and improvements of the manufacturing,
- Condition monitoring of the power module,
- Concepts for protection against lightning,
- Several cooling concepts.
WP 5, Safety and reliability:
- Investigation of different concepts for condition monitoring resulting in the development of Temperature Sensitive Electric Parameters (TSEPs) based techniques; extensive tests and validation
- Data monitoring and acquisition methods and circuits
- Power cycling tests on SiC-power modules and identification of possible failure mechanisms
WP 6, Demonstrator:
- Definition test cases and procedures for the converter and its components
- Development of test-benches and analysis/validation SW for validation of the project objectives and requirements
- Manufacturing and integration of all boards and components of the inverter demonstrator
- Validation of the converter and its components.
WP 7, Dissemination and exploitation:
- Establishment and monitoring of project communication and dissemination procedures and channels,
- Dissemination of all relevant project outcomes, mainly by the research partners but also the industrial partners, with focus on scientific journals and conferences,
- Exploitation of the converter and its components as well as the knowledge gained in the project by the industrial partners; exploitation of the tools, models and general experiences by the research organisations,
- Identification of potential standardization topics, based on the modular building block concept.
WP 8, Project management:
- Initialization of the project with setup of the project bodies and definition of responsibilities, management and communication processes,
- Monitoring and control of the project progress w.r.t. to the project plan,
- Quality assurance of the results and risk management,
- Management of the external and internal communication as well as reporting.
