Assessing Performance Of A 10-kW String Inverter Based On GaN FETs
by Riccardo Ruffo and Vedatroyee Ghosh, Texas Instruments, Freising, Germany, How2Power Today, Jan 15 2025
Focus:
GaN power devices enable lower switching losses and higher switching frequencies, leading
to improved efficiency and smaller size for string inverters in photovoltaic systems. This
article describes a low-cost 10-kW single-phase string inverter based on GaN power
devices. The inverter consists of two nonisolated power stages—a dc-dc converter comprised
of two interleaved boost converters and a dc-ac converter. The design’s high efficiency
enables the addition of nonisolated dc-dc converter that connects directly to an energy
storage system (ESS), and installed on the same heat sink as the other power converters.
Interesting aspects of this design discussed here include the bidirectional operation of
the dc-dc stage that manages power flow to and from the battery, the use of the HERIC
topology in the dc-ac stage, and digital control of all three power stages using a single
MCU. Experimental efficiency and thermal performance results are presented for each of the
power stages.
What you’ll learn:
- How to implement a low-cost 10-kW single-phase string inverter
- How to increase power density for string inverters using GaN devices
- How to understand the operation and benefits of the HERIC topology in inverter power stages
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