Improving the Overall Efficiency of Automotive Inverters Using a Multilevel Converter Composed of Low Voltage Si mosfets
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In order to improve the driving range and reduce the cost of battery electric vehicles through a higher efficiency, this paper proposes to adopt multilevel converters using low-voltage Si mosfets in the electric powertrains. A multilevel Si mosfet inverter, a conventional insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) inverter, and a SiC mosfet inverter are modeled and compared using a reference vehicle over various driving cycles. The costs of the three solutions are also compared. It is shown that the multilevel Si mosfet inverter has a rather high efficiency and realizes the lowest cost among the three solutions even when the worst case of cost is considered. Sensitivity analysis also shows that the multilevel Si mosfet inverter is suitable for a wide range of vehicle concepts in addition to the reference vehicle. Moreover, the multilevel topology also features lower electromagnetic interference and provides modularity. Therefore, Si mosfet-based multilevel inverters are proved in this paper to be an appropriate option to improve the efficiency and reduce the cost of electric powertrains.
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In urban driving cycles, the efficiency was improved by approximately 10%.
“On the other hand, for urban driving cycles, the efficiency has been improved by approximately 10% due to the lower speed of the vehicle and motor.”
From A Review of Multilevel Inverter Topologies in Electric Vehicles: Current Status and Future Trends (2021) · cites this paper as [93]
In the low-speed range of the motor, the minimum efficiency of the inverter increased from 70% in the IGBT-based two-level inverter to 92% in the MOSFET-based CHB inverter.
“The first difference of the three inverter structures appears in the lowspeed range of the motor, where the minimum efficiency of the inverter has increased from 70% in IGBT-based two-level inverter to 92% in the MOSFET-based CHB inverter.”
From A Review of Multilevel Inverter Topologies in Electric Vehicles: Current Status and Future Trends (2021) · cites this paper as [93]
In higher speeds, multilevel inverter efficiency is still higher than two-level IGBT-based inverter by 2%-3%.
“In higher speeds, multilevel inverter's efficiency still higher than two-level IGBT-based inverter by 2%-3%.”
From A Review of Multilevel Inverter Topologies in Electric Vehicles: Current Status and Future Trends (2021) · cites this paper as [93]
Although the inverter cost is higher in the case of CHB structure, overall system cost has been slightly reduced by using multilevel inverter.
“It can be seen that although the inverter cost is higher in case of CHB structure, overal system cost has been slightly reduced by using multilevel inverter.”
From A Review of Multilevel Inverter Topologies in Electric Vehicles: Current Status and Future Trends (2021) · cites this paper as [93]
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A Review of Multilevel Inverter Topologies in Electric Vehicles: Current Status and Future Trends
Poorfakhraei, A., Narimani, M., & Emadi, A. (2021) · IEEE Open Journal of Power Electronics · doi:10.1109/ojpel.2021.3063550 · Cited by 424 · see citing works
“It should be noted that the SiC two-level inverter has similar conduction loss with Si multilevel inverter, while the switching loss is slightly more in the former [93].”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialA Review of Modulation and Control Techniques for Multilevel Inverters in Traction Applications
Poorfakhraei, A., Narimani, M., & Emadi, A. (2021) · IEEE Access · doi:10.1109/access.2021.3056612 · Cited by 179 · see citing works
- Authors
- Chang, F., Ilina, O., Lienkamp, M., & Voss, L.
- Affiliations
- Technical University of Munich (DE)
- Ansys (Germany) (DE)
- Venue
- IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics
- Published
- 2019-04
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 3586-3602
- ISSN
- 0885-8993 (ISSN-L)
- 1941-0107
- OpenAlex
- W2862496452
- Cited by
- 111
- References
- 80
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 6
- FWCI
- 3.54
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- mediatum.ub.tum.de
- Licence
- Locations
- IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics (publishedVersion)
- mediaTUM (Technical University of Munich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- National Research Foundation
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Multilevel Inverters and Converters
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Automotive Engineering › Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Technologies
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Silicon Carbide Semiconductor Technologies
- Keywords
- multilevel inverter, Si MOSFET, automotive inverters, battery electric vehicles, electric vehicle drivetrain, inverter efficiency, IGBT comparison, cost comparison, driving cycles, electromagnetic interference, modularity, sensitivity analysis
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