A low-inductance Sectional Busbar for Snuberless Operation of SiC-based EV Traction Inverters

This paper presents a low-inductance dc busbar for SiC-based electric vehicle traction inverters operating at high ambient temperatures. Unlike the laminated busbars, which use parallel copper sheets to establish low-inductance connection between the dc-link capacitor bank and all the switching devices, the proposed busbar uses capacitor sections which are vertically mounted on top of each power semiconductor module. This significantly reduces the busbar's parasitic inductance and eliminates the unreliable snubber circuit which is typically used with laminated and PCB busbars to reduce the overvoltage spikes across the fast-switching semiconductor devices during the device turn-off transients.