Experimental comparison of hard-switching, ZVT and SiC inverters

Various soft switching inverter topologies have been reported in the literature with the aims of reducing the switching losses and dynamic switching stress. However, lower losses are generally regarded as one of the most significant advantages of the emerging silicon carbide semiconductor devices over the conventional silicon devices. Both routes seem viable to improve the converter efficiency. To investigate the optimal solution, this paper experimentally evaluates the efficiency of six prototypes, i.e., three zero-voltage transition inverters differing only in the power switches, and three hard-switching inverters, mounting both silicon and silicon carbide devices. A set of experimental results is included.