Nowadays full electric and hybrid vehicles require ever greater power ratings, so it is common to use two or more silicon-carbide power modules in parallel to increase the current capability. The main strategies that can be adopted to enhance inverter power capacity are: upgrading the cooling system, acting on the thickness and thermal conductivity of materials, or on the cooler design; raising the maximum tolerable junction temperature peak of the SiC dice, acting on packaging materials; improving the capability of sorting dice and power modules according to their main static parameters to minimize performance degradation and thermal imbalance; optimizing PCB layout thanks to the reduction of parasitic inductances and capacitances, to improve the gate driver current balance. The objective of this study is to identify the contribution of each of these solutions to the current capability increase of two parallel connected SiC power modules, through a sensitivity analysis. While this study specifically focuses on traction inverters, the results apply to a wide variety of fields including medical systems, industrial, renewable energy.
