Silicon Application Extension Versus WBG Due to Partial Power Processing

Abstract

This paper discusses the new possibilities that partial power processing offers to implement silicon semiconductors compared to wide-bandgap technologies. With this purpose, an on-board charger application is presented as a case study in which wide-bandgap semiconductors based full power converters are compared with silicon semiconductors based partial power converters. The comparison is made using the total energy loss over a complete charge cycle. The total energy loss is calculated using the switching loss and conduction loss of the devices. The zero-voltage switching regions for both full power and partial power topologies are also considered while calculating switching losses. Using circuit simulations, it is concluded that the partial power processing converters with silicon based devices have better efficiency and reduced cost than full power converters with wide-bandgap based devices.