Mission profile based sizing of IGBT chip area for PV inverter applications

Maximizing the total energy generation is of importance for Photovoltaic (PV) plants. This paper proposes a method to optimize the IGBT chip area for PV inverters to minimize the annual energy loss of the active switches based on long-term operation conditions (i.e., mission profile). The design process is firstly introduced. Then the power loss, thermal characteristic and lifetime for IGBT modules with different chip areas are modeled. After that, the dependence of the annual energy loss and maximum junction temperature on the IGBT chip area and switching frequency is derived under a specific yearly mission profile. Simulation results are given to verify the thermal characteristics. Furthermore, a Monte Carlo based lifetime evaluation is presented to check the IGBT reliability. The proposed design method enables a reliability-oriented energy optimized sizing of active switches for PV inverter applications, which otherwise cannot be achieved by taking into account the power efficiency at rated condition or the weighted power efficiency at several loading levels only.