An Inverter Packaging Scheme for an Integrated Segmented Traction Drive System

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2013

OSTI ID:1093741

Su, Gui-Jia ^[1]; Tang, Lixin ^[1]; Ayers, Curtis William ^[1]; Wiles, Randy H ^[1]

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1. ORNL

The standard voltage source inverter (VSI), widely used in electric vehicle/hybrid electric vehicle (EV/HEV) traction drives, requires a bulky dc bus capacitor to absorb the large switching ripple currents and prevent them from shortening the battery s life. The dc bus capacitor presents a significant barrier to meeting inverter cost, volume, and weight requirements for mass production of affordable EVs/HEVs. The large ripple currents become even more problematic for the film capacitors (the capacitor technology of choice for EVs/HEVs) in high temperature environments as their ripple current handling capability decreases rapidly with rising temperatures. It is shown in previous work that segmenting the VSI based traction drive system can significantly decrease the ripple currents and thus the size of the dc bus capacitor. This paper presents an integrated packaging scheme to reduce the system cost of a segmented traction drive.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL); Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Facility
• Sponsoring Organization: EE USDOE - Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1093741
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English