Design for Reliability of SiC-MOSFET-Based 1500-V PV Inverters With Variable Gate Resistance

1500-V photovoltaic (PV) configuration is the standard design in the solar PV industry. Extending the maximum dc voltage from 1000 to 1500 V can reduce the installation cost of the entire power plant. However, it may affect the reliability of the corresponding 1500-V PV inverters, due to the increased loading stresses, i.e., voltage stress and thermal loading of power devices. In this context, this article proposes a solution to the reliability enhancement of silicon carbide-
mosfet
-based 1500-V PV inverters with variable gate resistance. This solution offers a possibility to adaptively adjust the switching speed to make a compromise between the switching power loss and voltage overshoot during commutation, thus enhancing the reliability. The evaluation results based on the mission profile of a 125-kW 1500-V PV system installed in Denmark indicate that the PV inverter with the proposed design, i.e., variable gate resistance, can improve reliability performance compared to the fixed gate resistance solution while ensuring a safer operating voltage margin.