Changes and challenges of photovoltaic inverter with silicon carbide device

High efficiency, high power density, and high reliability are always the technical trends of converters for renewable energy applications. Silicon carbide (SiC) devices can break through the technical limitations of silicon (Si) devices. Thus, SiC devices are considered as the foundations of next-generation high-performance converters. Aimed at the photovoltaic (PV) power system, this study surveys state-of-the-art of PV inverters. The future requirements of PV inverters on efficiency, power density, reliability, and cost are proposed. The possible benefits and available demonstrations of SiC-based PV inverters are presented. Then, some technical challenges of SiC PV inverters, including switching ringing, cross-talk, short-circuit withstand, gate driver, package, high-capacity module, and thermal interface material, are comprehensively illustrated through experimental results. Available researches on these challenges are overviewed, and some research trends on SiC-based PV inverter are presented. This paper is helpful for the research and development of next-generation SiC-based inverters for renewable energy integration.