High Efficiency Powertrain for Heavy Duty Trucks using SiC Inverter/Rectifier
Iqbal Husain
Srdjan Miodrag Lukic
Wensong Yu
Project runs from 10/01/2019 to 12/31/2021
$360,000
The proposal presents the plan for the development of a High Efficiency Powertrain (“HEP”) system will incorporate a combined high efficiency and compact SiC 250kW inverter/rectifier designed to support the high continuous loads and challenging shock/vibration environment of heavy-duty trucks with an electrified axle specifically designed for high performance and efficiency in battery-electric Class 8 trucks used in medium range (>250 mile) distribution. The SiC inverter/rectifier development will be led by Ricardo and supported by North Carolina State University (NC State), Oak Ridge National Labs (ORNL) and Wolfspeed. Ricardo’s current 175kW inverter design (shown in Figure 1 above) shall act as the base for the new 250kW design. The goal of the new design is to maximize the combined inverter/motor efficiency as utilized in a Class 8 distribution truck running routes of >250 miles. Specifically, the goals are for the SiC inverter to reach efficiencies of 98.5% in a volume the same or smaller than the current 175kW design (more than 50kW/l). NC State has also developed advanced SiC inverters and will support the new design in the areas of modeling optimization, planar designs including transformers, and minimizing commutation loop inductance and voltage stress of SiC devices. ORNL has performed extensive research and design work on SiC inverters and will focus on how to use the currently developed grid tied 1kV dc-bus link-based inverter power stage as the basis for an off-board DC-charger. Finally, Wolfspeed, one of the pre-eminent SiC MOSFET manufacturers in the world, will provide their leading-edge devices. We believe the combination of three strong SiC inverter designers coupled with the leading power module vendor will provide a very strong technical team for successful development of the advanced inverter and the converter for fast DC-charging.
