Design and Testing of an Automotive Compliant 800V 550 kVA SiC Traction Inverter with Full-Ceramic DC-Link and EMI Filter

The traction inverter represents a crucial component of an electric vehicle (EV) powertrain. Efficiency, power density and overall integration are the primary targets of the inverter design process, which represents an active research and development topic for both industry and academia. The great majority of published EV inverter designs only focus on the DC/AC converter power stage (i.e., power modules and DC-link capacitor), disregarding fundamental elements for the correct operation of the system and/or for its compliance with automotive standards (e.g., control board, current measurement, EMI filter, case integration, etc.). Therefore, this paper focuses on the design and testing of a complete drive inverter system for a high-performance, 800 V 550 kVA, EV traction application. In particular, the inverter design includes state-of-the-art direct cooled SiC power modules, a full-ceramic DC-link capacitor and an EMI filter including an inductor concept providing both differential-mode and common-mode filtering actions.