Temperature measurement in gate driver boosts ESS power
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Power Integrations has launched a dual channel gate driver on a single board with integrated temperature sensor to boost power efficiency.
The SCALE-iFlex XLT dual-channel plug-and-play gate driver family can be used with the LV100 (Mitsubishi), XHP 2 (Infineon), HPnC (Fuji Electric) and equivalent IGBT modules up to 2300 V blocking voltage for wind, energy storage and solar renewable energy installations.
The gate driver includes an NTC temperature readout to improve accuracy, increase reliability and module utilization by up to 30 percent. The isolated NTC readout also reduces hardware complexity, eliminating multiple cables, connectors and additional isolation barrier crossing circuits.
- IGBT/SiC module gate drivers add temperature readout
- Gate driver targets 1.7 kV to 4.5 kV IGBT and SiC modules
- Europe drives BESS market strength
“It’s a real challenge to build a single-board gate driver for these ‘new dual’ style IGBT modules,” Thorsten Schmidt, product marketing manager at Power Integrations tells eeNews Europe. “The SCALE-iFlex XLT gate drivers fit inside the outline of the module, allowing the drivers to be mounted on the module, which gives converter system designers a high degree of mechanical design freedom.”
“We are reading out the NTC signal and converting the signal and sending t through the transformer so we have a higher isolation. We started this when we introduced the SCALE-iFlex routing through the transformer and the NTC is inside the module and provided on a dedicated pin on the module so it is close to the junction temperature of the module,” he said. “With a better thermal model using actual temperature data the utilisation of the silicon can be improved with tighter design margins which can allow 25 to 30% more power.”
The single board gate driver measures 98 x 65.5mm and 31.3mm high with 160 components rather than over 250 in a 108 x 68mm footprint.
““We are addressing 2300V because what we see in energy storage with PV this is the maximum being considered and it’s a new voltage class being introduced right now,” he said, “This is providing compactness with the integrated temperature readout for the energy storage market in Europe. This is an extension of the SCALE-iFlex family with dual modules up to 2300V in single operation rather than in parallel and targeting common vendors.”
“It’s a single board solution which has two advantages, A low component count with increased reliability rather than two or three boards that are stacked, and also fits on the existing power modules.”
“A single board is an advantage for a three level topology and we are developing a reference design for this as it is the new de facto standard for the industry and we can address 1200V, 1700V and up to 2300V.
“With the creepage in our design we can address reinforced isolation up to 1700V and basic at 2300V. We do not foresee reinforced isolation at 2300V as you have to increase the clearance and creepage and the size of the transformer but we can address it with the SCALE-iFlex which has a larger transformer so it’s a tradeoff for the customer who has to provide isolation in a different way.”
“We have a couple of lead customers and we have this in design in high volume as a custom design and now we are providing it as a standard product.”
The gate driver uses the SCALE-2 chip set which minimizes component count, enhancing reliability. The gate driver board also protects the power switches in the event of a short-circuit and is available for sampling now.
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