1966 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 50, NO.

3, MAY/JUNE 2014

A Hybrid-Switch-Based Soft-Switching Inverter for

Ultrahigh-Efficiency Traction Motor Drives
Jih-Sheng Lai, Fellow, IEEE, Wensong Yu, Member, IEEE, Pengwei Sun, Member, IEEE,
Scott Leslie, Member, IEEE, Beat Arnet, Member, IEEE, Chris Smith, Senior Member, IEEE, and Art Cogan

Abstract—This paper presents a hybrid switch that parallels a ciency improvement. The benefit of conduction loss reduction
power MOSFET and an insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) with parallel-connected IGBT and MOSFET hybrid switch
as the main switch of a zero-voltage switching (ZVS) inverter. The configuration was extensively evaluated in [3]–[5]. In [6], the
combination features the MOSFET conducting in the low-current
region and the IGBT conducting in the high-current region, and use of a parallel-connected hybrid switch was configured with
the soft switching avoids the reverse recovery problem during the hybrid switch serving as the main switch that operates in
the device turn-on. A custom hybrid switch module has been low frequency, with each switch operating in line-frequency
developed for a variable-timing-controlled coupled-magnetic-type square-wave mode and the neutral connected IGBT and diode
ZVS inverter with a nominal input voltage of 325 V and the combination operating in high frequency to allow pulsewidth
continuous output power of 30 kW for a traction motor drive.
Experimental results of the hybrid-switch-based inverter with modulation (PWM) operation.
the total loss projected by temperature indicate that the inverter The conduction voltage drop of a power MOSFET is resis-
achieves 99% efficiency at the nominal condition and demonstrate tive, and its temperature coefficient is positive. On the other
ultrahigh-efficiency operation over a wide load range. At 375-V hand, the IGBT voltage drop is a constant voltage plus a re-
input, the maximum measured efficiency through temperature sistive drop, and its temperature coefficient can be negative for
projection and loss separation analysis is 99.3%.
certain types such as punchthrough (PT) and light PT [7]–[11].
Index Terms—Electric vehicles, high efficiency, hybrid switch, An inverter draws ac sinusoidal current, which runs from zero to
motor drives, soft-switching inverter. positive or negative peak and back down to zero. Its low-current
I. I NTRODUCTION region will consume a high conduction loss if an IGBT is used
as the main switch because of its fixed voltage drop. With the

A soft-switching inverter allows elimination of switching

loss; however, its conduction loss remains as the major
part of the overall loss. If the switching device is a power
MOSFET as the main switch, the voltage drop is proportional to
the current and is relatively low at low currents. Such a feature
is very desirable for light-load efficiency. Therefore, combining
MOSFET, it is possible to parallel a large number of power the best features of power MOSFET and IGBT will ensure high
MOSFETs to reduce the conduction voltage drop. The prob- efficiency at light loads and high temperatures.
lems with excessive number of paralleled MOSFETs are high The basic hybridization idea is to have the power MOSFET
cost and increased voltage drop at high temperatures. Thus, share the current below a threshold level and the IGBT take
most high-power inverters have been using the insulated-gate over for the rest. In general, the current flows through the
bipolar transistor (IGBT). low-impedance path. Thus, when a current-associated voltage
In high-power dc–dc converter applications, using IGBT as drop is lower than the fixed IGBT voltage drop, the current
the main switch and MOSFET as the auxiliary switch, whether will flow through the power MOSFET. Such a simple idea
series- or parallel-connected [1], [2], was suggested for effi- is not appropriate for hard-switching PWM inverters because
turning on one side of the switch needs to turn off the opposite-
side diode, which, in this case, is the internal body diode of
Manuscript received November 10, 2012; revised March 1, 2013; accepted the power MOSFET. With typical slow reverse recovery and
May 2, 2013. Date of publication October 2, 2013; date of current version
May 15, 2014. Paper 2012-IPCC-611.R1, presented at the 2012 IEEE Energy
snappy characteristic of MOSFET body diode, the penalty of
Conversion Congress and Exposition, Raleigh, NC, USA, September 15–20, the added switching loss will offset any gains on the conduction
and approved for publication in the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON I NDUSTRY loss. Therefore, such a hybrid switch has not been adopted in
A PPLICATIONS by the Industrial Power Converter Committee of the IEEE
Industry Applications Society. This material is based upon work supported
the conventional hard-switching PWM inverters.
by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under Award Number DE-FC26- With soft switching, the diode current is always diverted
07NT43214 with final testing witnessed by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. to the opposite-side diode before the opposite-side switch is
J.-S. Lai, W. Yu, and P. Sun are with the Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061 USA (e-mail: Laijs@vt.edu;
turned on; therefore, the switch can be turned on under the zero-
wensong@vt.edu; spw21st@vt.edu). voltage condition. In this case, the slow reverse recovery is no
S. Leslie is with Powerex, Inc., Youngwood, PA 15697 USA (e-mail: longer an issue. Therefore, it is possible to adopt the hybrid
sleslie@pwrx.com).
B. Arnet, C. Smith, and A. Cogan are with Azure Dynamics, Woburn, MA switch in most zero-voltage switching (ZVS)-based inverters.
01801 USA (e-mail: arnet@plexim.com; chsmit15@gmail.com; aceriley@ The only concern is during the turn-on process, during which
comcast.net). a majority of the load current may flow through the power
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. MOSFET and result in transient overcurrent and associated
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIA.2013.2284296 losses. It is necessary to delay the turn-on process of the

0093-9994 © 2013 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
LAI et al.: SOFT-SWITCHING INVERTER FOR ULTRAHIGH-EFFICIENCY TRACTION MOTOR DRIVES 1967

Fig. 1. Hybrid switch configuration for a soft-switching inverter with both Fig. 2. (a) Forward-conduction characteristic. (b) Reverse-conduction
delay turn-on and turn-off for power MOSFET. characteristic.

MOSFET. The turn-off delay, however, will depend on the die

size of the MOSFET. If the MOSFET size is too small, turning
off IGBT can easily cause MOSFET overcurrent and even result
in an avalanche breakdown. Thus, the MOSFET cannot be
delayed too much during turn-off.
Fig. 1 shows the circuit diagram of the hybrid switch for the
phase leg of a soft-switching inverter. The “delay” block can
be configured with three possible cases: 1) turn-on delay only;
2) turn-off delay only; and 3) both turn-on and turn-off delays.
If the MOSFET die area is large enough, it is possible to delay
Fig. 3. (a) Forward-conduction temperature characteristic. (b) Forward char-
the MOSFET turn-off so that the IGBT turn-off tail current- acteristic comparison between three generations.
induced loss is minimized. The circuit here is a generic soft-
switching leg that can employ different auxiliary circuits to
achieve ZVS [12]–[18]. antiparallel diode has been eliminated in this case because the
The upper switch consists of M1 , Q1 , and D1 . In a con- MOSFET die size is large enough to handle the continuous re-
ventional hard-switching inverter, only IGBT Q1 and diode verse current. In this case, the total number of the main devices
D1 are used. IGBT Q1 is to conduct the positive current, in the hybrid soft switch is the same as that in the conventional
whereas diode D1 is to conduct the negative freewheeling IGBT modules. Fig. 2(b) shows the forward-conduction char-
current. With added M1 , the positive load current IL can be acteristic of a recently developed hybrid switch. When the total
shared between M1 and Q1 , and the negative freewheeling device current, i.e., Isw , is less than 75 A, the IGBT shares
current can be shared between the body diode of M1 and D1 . almost zero current, and the voltage drop is about 0.68 V. When
The lower switch consists of M2 , Q2 , and D2 . IGBT Q2 is to Isw is above 140 A, the IGBT starts sharing some noticeable
conduct the negative current, whereas diode D2 is to conduct current. At 280 A, both the IGBT and the MOSFET share nearly
the positive freewheeling current. With added M2 , the positive equal current. During the reverse-conducting period, the hybrid
load current can be shared between M2 and Q2 , and the positive switch operates under synchronous rectification mode, and its
freewheeling current can be shared between the body diode of reverse-conducting characteristic is shown in Fig. 2(b). When
M2 and D2 . Only one gate signal is required for each hybrid current Isw is below 75 A, the MOSFET conducts most of the
switch pair. G1 controls both M1 and Q1 , and G2 controls both current, and the voltage drop is about 0.67 V. After 100 A, the
M2 and Q2 . The auxiliary resonant current ILr can be created body diode starts sharing some current. At about 200 A, both
by an auxiliary circuit or the other phase switches. Resonant the body diode and the MOSFET channel share nearly the same
capacitors C1 and C2 are connected across the hybrid switches current.
to slow down the device voltage slew rate and to reduce the The well-known positive-temperature-coefficient MOSFET
turn-off loss. If the MOSFET die size is large enough, then D1 forward-conduction voltage drop will increase from room
and D2 can be eliminated to save cost. temperature to nearly double when the junction temperature
Unlike most other literature’s suggestion to use the IGBT reaches 125 ◦ C. Such a problem can be solved by adopting
as the main switch and the MOSFET as the assist switch, the the negative-temperature-coefficient IGBT [7]–[11] for the pro-
proposed approach for a soft-switching inverter is to use the posed hybrid module. Fig. 3(a) compares the forward-voltage-
MOSFET as the main switch and the IGBT as the overflow drop characteristic at room temperature (25 ◦ C) and 125 ◦ C
switch. temperature conditions. Under the light-load condition, less
than 100 A in this case, the inverter may operate mostly at lower
temperatures, and the MOSFET will take over more current.
II. U SE OF H YBRID S WITCH IN
Under the heavy-load condition, the IGBT will dominate, and
C OUPLED -M AGNETIC -T YPE S OFT-S WITCHING I NVERTERS
the voltage drop is in fact decreased while temperature in-
Fig. 2(a) shows the circuit diagram and terminals of the creases. A similar temperature characteristic can also be found
proposed hybrid switch. Note that the conventional IGBT’s in the reverse-conduction condition.
1968 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 50, NO. 3, MAY/JUNE 2014

Fig. 4. Photograph comparing the three generations of soft-switching module.

The developed hybrid switch for a soft-switching inverter

Fig. 5. Use of the hybrid switch in a phase leg of the coupled-magnetic-type
has been going through three design iterations. Their forward- soft-switching inverter.
voltage-drop characteristics are compared in Fig. 3(b). The
first and second design generations used the IGBT and diode
chips from a 600-V 400-A module [19] in paralleled with two
650-V 47-mΩ CoolMOS chips used in a commercially avail-
able discrete product [20]. The first generation (Gen-1) adopted
an internal bus bar structure to reduce the substrate resistance
loss with the major penalty on parasitic inductance. The second
generation (Gen-2) adopted a low-profile module housing to
reduce the parasitic inductance, but the substrate path causes
significant conducting path resistance penalty. The third gener-
ation (Gen-3) adopted two latest available larger die MDmesh
power MOSFET chips [21] in parallel with the same IGBT
used in the early generations. However, the external diodes are Fig. 6. (a) Control timing diagram for the proposed soft-switching inverter
completely eliminated to make room for the substrate area to phase leg using hybrid switch. (b) Key voltage and current waveforms.
provide sufficient conduction path. As a result, both parasitic
inductance and package resistance are substantially reduced.
Fig. 4 shows the photograph comparing the three generations of At t0 , the bottom main hybrid switch gates VGE−Q2 and
the hybrid soft-switching module package. The first-generation VGE−M 2 turn off. Because their antiparallel diodes conduct
module adopts the integrated cooling structure. The second and initially, the turn-off action does not change voltage or current
third generations moved back to the conventional module that waveform.
allows natural convention or forced-air cooling because the At t1 , the upper auxiliary switch gate VGE−Qx1 is turned on
inverter built with the first-generation modules demonstrated by the PWM command. Auxiliary switch Qx1 conducts and
ultrahigh efficiency of 99% through calorimeter testing, thus produces a resonant current ILr , which linearly rises initially
suggesting that it is possible to eliminate the extra cooling with a slope that is proportional to the dc bus voltage and in-
system to save the cost of both the module package and the versely proportional to the inductance of the coupled magnetics,
cooling system itself [22]. i.e., Lr .
Fig. 5 shows a coupled-magnetic-type soft-switching inverter At t2 , ILr exceeds the load current, and its excess portion
circuit adopting the proposed hybrid switch. The basic operat- will charge and discharge resonant capacitors C2 and C1 ,
ing principle is discussed in [11]. For the hybrid switch, the respectively. With C1 being discharged, switch voltage VCE1
MOSFET turn-on delay circuit can be implemented with a starts falling, and with C2 being charged, bottom switch voltage
resistor. Q1 is the upper main switch, Q2 is the lower main VCE2 starts rising
switch, D1 is the upper freewheeling diode, and D2 is the lower At t3 , C1 and C2 are fully discharged and charged. VCE1
freewheeling diode. Qx1 and Qx2 are the auxiliary switches falls to zero, and M1 and Q1 can then be turned on under the
to produce the resonant current, i.e., ILr . The gate-to-emitter zero-voltage condition.
voltage of Q1 , i.e., VGE−Q1 , is to control Q1 on and off. The At t4 , the main switch Q1 gate VGE−Qx1 is turned on by the
gate-to-source voltage of M1 , i.e., VGS−M 1 , is to control M1 on control circuit. The delay between t1 and t4 , i.e., tdly , can be
and off. When Q1 is turned on, the collector conducts current controlled by a fixed delay timer or by zero-voltage detection.
IQ1 . When M1 is turned on, the drain conducts current IM 1 . The load current starts shifting to Q1 , and IQ1 starts rising.
Under the normal conducting condition, the sum of IQ1 and At t5 , which is a small delay controlled by the added delay
IM 1 equals the load current IL . with the gate resistor, the MOSFET switch M1 gate VGE−Qx1
Fig. 6(a) and (b) shows the switching sequence and associ- is turned on. The small delay is to avoid M1 carrying too much
ated key voltage and current waveforms for the aforementioned current initially. After both M1 and Q1 are turned on, the load
coupled-magnetic soft switching using the hybrid switch. Ini- current will be shared by both M1 and Q1 , or IL = IQ1 + IM 1 .
tially, the load current is positive, and the bottom freewheeling With the conduction of M1 and Q1 , the secondary winding of
diode D2 conducts load current IL . the coupled magnetics will see a reverse voltage due to Dx4
LAI et al.: SOFT-SWITCHING INVERTER FOR ULTRAHIGH-EFFICIENCY TRACTION MOTOR DRIVES 1969

Fig. 8. Photograph of the custom hybrid soft switch power and gate drive
circuit boards sitting on top of the modules.

Fig. 7. Simulated voltage and current waveforms under Vdc = 325 V,

IL = 200 A condition.

conducting. Resonant current ILr will be reset by this reverse

voltage.
At t6 , resonant current ILr falls to zero. The slope of the
resonant current falling rate depends on the secondary induc-
tance of the coupled magnetic. With turns ratio larger than 1,
the slope can be gentler, and the zero-voltage crossing period
can be widened.
At t7 , both M1 and Q1 are gated off. With an added gate
resistor, M1 turns off after Q1 is turned off. M1 will temporarily
assume all the load current, which is generally not a problem
provided that the die size is large enough. After M1 turns off, Fig. 9. Experimental device voltage turned on at zero voltage under different
the current shifts out to charge and discharge C1 and C2 . With load conditions.
C1 being charged, switch voltage VCE1 starts rising, and with
III. VARIABLE -T IMING -C ONTROLLED S OFT-S WITCHING
C2 being discharged, bottom switch voltage VCE2 starts falling.
I NVERTER U SING H YBRID S WITCHES
At t8 , capacitor C1 is fully charged, and VCE1 rises to the dc
bus voltage. Meanwhile, capacitor C2 is fully discharged, and Fig. 8 shows the photograph of the complete assembly of
VCE2 falls to zero. The load current is conducted in the bottom the power module, including a power board that connects all
freewheeling diode D2 after capacitor C2 is fully discharged. the power pins and a gate drive board that interfaces to the
At t9 , the bottom auxiliary switch VGE−Qx2 is turned on controller through ribbon cables. The copper weight and the
by the PWM command. Auxiliary switch Qx2 conducts. With number of layers of the printed circuit board (PCB) depend
bottom freewheeling diode D2 being conducting, the voltage on the power requirement. In this specific design case, rather
across the coupled magnetic is zero; hence, the resonant current than using a heavy copper board or a multilayer board with a
cannot be established. Moreover, with VCE2 being zero, the typical 1-oz copper, multiple four-layer standard PCBs were
bottom switch gate signals VGE−Q2 and VGE−M 2 can be turned stacked to allow sufficient current handling capability.
on under the zero-voltage condition. The device turn-on gating is adaptive to different load condi-
Fig. 7 shows PSPICE simulated Gen-3 module voltage and tions based on zero-voltage condition sensing [12]. Fig. 9 shows
current waveforms under the 325-V Vdc and 200-A IL con- the device voltage and gate voltage VGE switching waveforms
dition using the circuit shown in Fig. 5. The upper window at three load current IL conditions: 100, 200, and 300 A. With
shows that the auxiliary switch gate signal VGE−Qx1 is turned adaptive gate timing control described in [18], all three current
on at t = 0.75 μs. The bottom window indicates that resonant conditions show gate voltage vGE turn on right after collector
current ILr starts rising, and at t = 1.7 μs, ILr exceeds IL . voltage vCE drops to zero. Small collector voltage ringing
The middle window indicates that VCE1 starts falling due to its immediately after gating on and off is observed. This is due
paralleled capacitor being discharged. At about 2.7 μs, VCE1 to parasitic inductance between the resonance capacitor and the
drops to zero, the upper main gates VGE−Q1 and VGS−M 1 are device chip. Such a small oscillation is difficult to avoid unless
turned on under the zero-voltage condition. When it is fully that resonant capacitor is noninductive and is directly attached
conducted, MOSFET M1 shares the majority of the current, to the substrate.
i.e., 135 A, whereas IGBT Q1 shares a smaller portion. The As compared with the waveforms obtained from the early-
proportion depends on the voltage drop of both devices. In generation modules [22], however, the waveform obtained in
the first-generation design, the IGBT shares more current at the this latest generation is considerably cleaner because of signif-
200-A condition. icant reduction in parasitic inductances for both power traces
1970 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 50, NO. 3, MAY/JUNE 2014

Fig. 10. Photographs of a 325-V 55-kW prototype. (a) Complete inverter

assembly. (b) Setup on a test stand.

and gate signal connections. With the ZVS verified in the

complete load range, a complete three-phase soft-switching
inverter was constructed for a traction motor drive with 325-V
nominal input and 55-kW peak power.
Fig. 10(a) shows the photograph of a 325-V 55-kW traction
drive inverter, and Fig. 10(b) shows the photograph of the
inverter sitting on a test stand for dynamometer testing. The
continuous power rating was specified at 30 kW, but with ul-
trahigh efficiency achieved, the continuous testing was actually
performed at 39 kW with a 3-W fan installed to help circulate
the air and serve as the base load for auxiliary power.

IV. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS

The inverter operates under discontinuous PWM mode with
a 10-kHz switching frequency. It was tested with three voltage
levels: 275, 325, and 375 V with a four-pole 90-kW induction
motor for electric vehicle traction drives. Fig. 11(a) shows the
output phase current waveforms at the 1030-r/min 225-Nm load
condition. The inverter output current is 146-A rms, and the
output power is 27 kW under this load condition. Fig. 11(b)
Fig. 11. Experimental inverter output current waveforms at (a) 325-V, 27-kW,
shows the inverter output current waveforms at the 3030-r/min 1030-r/min; (b) 275-V, 39-kW, 3030-r/min; and (c) 375-V, 38-kW, 2980-r/min
110-Nm load condition at 275-V input. In this case, the inverter conditions.
output current is 150-A rms, and the output power is 39 kW.
Fig. 11(c) shows the inverter output current waveforms at
2980-r/min 110-Nm motoring load under the 375-V dc input
voltage condition. In this case, the inverter output current is
about 100-A rms, and the output power is 38 kW. Higher input
voltage tends to have lower output current at the high-speed
region because the control loop adapts the maximum torque per
ampere (MTPA) control to minimize the motor current with
the available input voltage. Note that the continuous testing
power level far exceeds the continuous rated power because
the heat sink and chassis used in the existing vehicle chassis
have a sufficient thermal capacity margin. The peak power was
not tested with the dynamometer; however, it was tested on the
vehicle during startup and short-term acceleration conditions.
Fig. 12 shows the efficiency as a function of the output Fig. 12. Measured efficiency as a function of output power at 3000-r/min
power at the 3000-r/min condition. In this measurement, the operation.
auxiliary power and fan losses are included as part of total
losses. With hybrid switch and adaptive-timing soft-switching Such high efficiency cannot be accurately measured with a
operation, the efficiency at 325-V input exceeds 99% at the power meter that measures the dc input and PWM ac output.
30-kW nominal load condition. At 375-V input and 38-kW Some operating points, however, were verified with a differen-
output, the efficiency reaches 99.3%. tial calorimeter [22], which has a small chamber to serve as
LAI et al.: SOFT-SWITCHING INVERTER FOR ULTRAHIGH-EFFICIENCY TRACTION MOTOR DRIVES 1971

Fig. 15. Coupled magnetic losses as a function of temperatures.

TABLE I
Fig. 13. Calorimeter measurement results at 12.2 kW with (a) coolant tem- L OSS S EPARATION AT 375-V DC I NPUT AND 37.59-kW AC
peratures and (b) inverter efficiency. O UTPUT C ONDITION

there was not any appreciable temperature rise. At the 20 ◦ C

room temperature test condition, the entire inverter was only
cooled by a 3-W fan, and the monitored module, which is far
away from the fan, has a case temperature of 47 ◦ C under the
Fig. 14. Measured module case temperature over a 12-min interval at 38-kW
output condition. steady-state 325-V input and 38-kW output condition.
The coupled magnetics’ temperatures and their correspond-
ing losses were measured offline, and the results were then
the reference and a large inverter chamber to house the inverter. used to project their losses under inverter operating conditions.
The power loss is proportional to the ratio of the temperature The total coupled magnetic losses as a function of temperature
difference between the two chambers. Each calorimeter test under different ambient temperature conditions are shown in
needs to be performed for more than 5 h to ensure that the Fig. 15.
thermal condition reached its steady state for each test point. Under the 375-V dc input voltage and 37.59-kW output
Fig. 13 shows the coolant temperatures of the calorimeter and power condition, the inverter output measurements showed a
the corresponding inverter efficiency under the 325-V dc input phase-to-neutral voltage of 143-V rms, a peak current of 144 A,
and 12.2-kW output condition. Temperatures Ta−in , Ta−out , a power factor of 0.862, and the input power of 37.86 kW. The
Tb−in , and Tb−out represent the inlet and output temperatures of individual loss components under this condition can be calcu-
the small reference and main chambers, respectively. Different lated through device conduction and switching characteristics
motor speeds tend to have different power factors, which, in and temperature monitoring. The loss analysis results are listed
turn, affects inverter efficiency. The test was conducted with a in Table I.
motor-generator set at 2800-r/min 35.5-Nm torque. The mea- It should be noticed that the main power switches are the
sured motor power factor is 0.836, and the steady-state inverter dominant loss component. Without using hybrid switch and soft
efficiency is 98.7%. switching, the main power switch loss will be much higher.
To further verify the efficiency numbers, a loss separation With soft switching, the achieved ultrahigh efficiency is mainly
method was used to calculate individual component losses with attributed to the conduction voltage drop reduction by the
assistant of measuring the temperatures of the module case and hybrid switch. The next major loss item is the magnetic com-
couple magnetic windings over a long period. Fig. 14 shows ponent, which accounts for 11% of the total loss in this specific
the measured power module case temperature over a 12-min case. The third major loss item is the auxiliary power supply
interval. The 325-V condition was started at a temperature that that supplies power to the gate drives, controller, conditioning
was already in steady state; hence, over the 12-min interval, circuit, and fan with a total of 19 W, or 7.0% of the total loss.
1972 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 50, NO. 3, MAY/JUNE 2014

controlled coupled-magnetic-type ZVS inverter demonstrated

an ultrahigh-efficiency operation over a wide load range. Exper-
imental results with the total loss projected by the temperature
rise and loss separation analysis indicate that at the nominal
325-V input and 30-kW output, the efficiency is 99%, and at a
375-V input and 38-kW output, the efficiency exceeds 99.3%.

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cycle. Fig. 17 shows the 4-min drive cycle data including the delta configured auxiliary resonant snubber inverter,” IEEE Trans. Ind.
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motor speed, peaking at 1100 r/min and inverter output current, [15] J.-S. Lai, “Resonant snubber–based soft–switching inverters for electric
which peaks at 360 A. The inverter performed very well with propulsion drives,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 71–80,
unnoticeable temperature rise after 15-min driving around a city Feb. 1997.
[16] J.-S. Lai, J. Zhang, H. Yu, and H. Kouns, “Source and load adaptive design
block near Boston, Massachusetts. for a high–power soft–switching inverter,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron.,
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[17] W. Yu, J.-S. Lai, and S.-Y. Park, “An improved zero–voltage–switching
V. C ONCLUSION inverter using two coupled magnetics in one resonant pole,” IEEE Trans.
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range zero–voltage soft–switching inverters,” in Proc. IEEE Appl. Power
of soft-switching inverters. The switch consists of the power Electron. Conf., Washington, DC, USA, Feb. 2009, pp. 407–412.
MOSFET to conduct the low-current portion and the IGBT [19] Powerex, Youngwood, PA, USA, CM400DY–12NF Datasheet. [Online].
to conduct the high-current portion. The use of the proposed Available: www.pwrx.com
hybrid switch in a soft-switching circuit avoids the reverse [20] Infineon, Neubiberg, Germany, SPW47N60C3 Datasheet. [Online].
Available: www.infineon.com
recovery problem of the power MOSFET while taking ad- [21] ST Microelectronics, Geneva, Switzerland, STY112N65M5 Datasheet.
vantage of the low-voltage-drop body diode with synchronous [Online]. Available: www.st.com
rectification. This combination not only eliminates the switch- [22] P. Sun, J.-S. Lai, C. Liu, and W. Yu, “A 55-kW three–phase inverter based
on hybrid switch soft-switching modules for high-temperature hybrid
ing loss but also reduces the conduction loss substantially. electric vehicle drive application,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 48, no. 3,
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LAI et al.: SOFT-SWITCHING INVERTER FOR ULTRAHIGH-EFFICIENCY TRACTION MOTOR DRIVES 1973

Jih-Sheng (Jason) Lai (S’85–M’89–SM’93–F’07) Scott Leslie (S’72–M’78) received the Ph.D. de-
received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electri- gree in electrical engineering from the University of
cal engineering from the University of Tennessee, Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA,
Knoxville, TN, USA, in 1985 and 1989, respectively. in 1978.
In 1989, he joined the Electric Power Research In- He is currently the Chief Technologist with
stitute (EPRI) Power Electronics Applications Cen- Powerex, Inc., Youngwood, PA, USA. For the past
ter (PEAC), where he managed EPRI-sponsored 32 years with Westinghouse and Powerex, he has
power electronics research projects. In 1993, he developed high-voltage high-power silicon-based
joined the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak silicon-controlled rectifiers, diodes, static induction
Ridge, TN, USA, as the Power Electronics Lead transistors, and bipolar transistors. Over the last
Scientist, where he initiated a high-power electronics 12 years, he has developed power insulated-gate
program and developed several novel high-power converters, including multi- bipolar transistor/metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor modules
level converters and soft-switching inverters. In 1996, he joined the Virginia for vehicle, alternate energy, aerospace, and military applications, as well as
Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA. Currently, high-temperature, high-voltage, and high-frequency power modules utilizing
he is the James S. Tucker Professor with the Bradley Department of Electrical SiC devices.
and Computer Engineering and the Director of the Future Energy Electronics
Center. He has published more than 305 technical papers and two books. He
is the holder of 22 U.S. patents. His main research areas are in high-efficiency Beat Arnet (M’88) was born in Switzerland in 1968.
power electronics conversions for high power and energy applications. He received the Diploma and Ph.D. degrees in elec-
Dr. Lai chaired the 2000 IEEE Workshop on Computers in Power Electronics trical engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of
(COMPEL 2000), the 2001 IEEE/DOE Future Energy Challenge, and the 2005 Technology (ETH), Zürich, Switzerland, in 1994 and
IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC 2005). His 1998, respectively.
work brought him several distinctive awards, including the Technical Achieve- In 1999, he joined Azure Dynamics (formerly
ment Award at the Lockheed Martin Award Night, five prize paper awards from Solectria Corporation), Woburn, MA, USA, where
the IEEE Industry Applications Society, and best paper awards at the 23rd he led the development of electric-drive compo-
International Conference on Industrial Electronics, Control and Instrumentation nents, including traction inverters and electric ma-
(IECON ’97), the 7th International Power Engineering Conference (IPEC ’05), chines. Since 2012, he has been with Plexim, Inc.,
and the 4th Power Conversion Conference (PCC ’07). His student teams won Cambridge, MA, USA, where he serves as the Gen-
first place at the 2009 TI Enginous Prize Analog Design Competition and the eral Manager and Head of Engineering. He has authored or coauthored over 15
2011 Grand Prize Award at the International Future Energy Challenge. publications. He is the principal inventor of four U.S. patents. His main areas
of interest include the modeling, design, and control of inverters and electric
machines, particularly for vehicular and industrial applications.
Dr. Arnet is a member of the IEEE Power Electronics and IEEE Industry
Wensong Yu (M’07) received the M.S. degree in me- Applications Societies.
chanical and electrical engineering from Huazhong
University of Science and Technology, Wuhan,
China, and the Ph.D. degree in mechanical and Chris Smith (S’00–M’03–SM’12) was born in
electrical engineering from the South China Univer- Cherry Point, NC, USA, in 1979. He received the
sity of Technology, Guangzhou, China, in 1995 and B.S. degree in science and computer engineering
2000, respectively. and the Master’s degree in electrical engineering
In 2000, he was with Emerson Network Power from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Uni-
Company, Ltd., Shenzhen, China, where he was versity, Blacksburg, VA, USA, in 2001 and 2003,
engaged in digital uninterruptible power supply respectively.
projects. In 2004, he joined the School of Electronic He was a Graduate Research Assistant under
and Information Engineering, South China University of Technology. He is Dr. J. Lai with the Future Energy Electronics Lab-
currently a Research Assistant Professor with the Bradley Department of Elec- oratory. After having completed his Master’s degree,
trical and Computer Engineering, Future Energy Electronics Center, Virginia he joined Fairchild Controls Corporation, Frederick,
Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA. He is the MD, USA, where he worked on several Mil Spec high-speed motor drives, both
author or coauthor of more than 20 technical papers and holds three patents. His permanent magnet and ac induction, and on 400-Hz power factor corrections
research interests include soft-switching power converters, grid-tied inverters, circuits. In 2006, he joined Azure Dynamics, Woburn, MA, USA, designing
industrial power electronics, digital control applied to power electronics, and both power electronics and controls for electric vehicle drive inverters. The
renewable energy power conditioning systems. areas of insulated-gate bipolar transistor temperature management, motor diag-
nostics, and general digital signal processing software were areas of focus. He
is currently with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory,
Lexington, MA, USA. His primary focus has been on strategies to successfully
implement vehicle-to-grid systems. This ranges from advanced power electron-
Pengwei Sun (S’07–M’12) received the B.S. and ics for bidirectional energy flow to control algorithms for efficient use of the
M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from North energy storage. His research interests include motor drives, alternative energy
China Electric Power University, Beijing, China, in conversion, hybrid vehicles, electromagnetic interference, and control systems.
2004 and 2007, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree Mr. Smith is a member of the IEEE Power Electronics Society.
in electrical engineering from Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA,
in 2012. Art Cogan received the B.S. degree in civil engineering from Merrimack
Since May 2012, he has been a Global Rotation College, North Andover, MA, USA.
Engineer with International Rectifier. His research He was a Test Engineering Manager with Azure Dynamics, Woburn, MA,
interests include the design and control of high- USA, where he was responsible for electric vehicle inverters and motor
efficiency single-phase and three-phase inverters, as drive testing. He was then the Director of Quality at Comprehensive Power,
well as multilevel and cascade inverters for renewable energy applications, Marlborough, MA, USA. Since 2013, he has been with Moog Inc., East Aurora,
including electric vehicle, solar, and wind power systems. NY, USA, as a Program Engineer in the Space and Defense Group.