Systematic evaluation of DC-link capacitors for GaN applications

Abstract:
Most power electronic applications today work with a voltage DC link. This DC-link usually consists of several capacitors. DC-links in fast-switching power electronics can cause several problems if they are not properly designed, for example, higher losses due to higher current and voltage amplitudes, more severe EMI problems like HF currents propagating through the supply lines, and damaging or reducing the lifetime of components. In this paper, studies are presented which can help to gain a better understanding of influencing factors and the needed modeling depth to provide a sufficient description of those phenomena and to complement existing design methods.