How can the prediction of common-mode interference factors that play a role in EMC filter insertion loss be made easier? How would this help engineers design better EMC filters more quickly? Takashi Masuzawa and his team at Fraunhofer IZM (Eckart Hoene, Stefan Hoffman and institute director Klaus-Dieter Lang) have published solutions for these questions in a paper entitled “A Modeling Method of Stray Magnetic Couplings in an EMC Filter for a SiC Solar Inverter”. Their outstanding research results won them the Best Paper Award at IPEC Hiroshima “ECCE Asia”. IPEC (International Power Electronics Conference) was held 18—21 May, 2014 in Japan. The Fraunhofer IZM paper was selected for a shortlist of three from 600 papers.

Background

The EMC filter investigated in the study is integrated in a solar inverter developed as part of Fraunhofer IZM’s SOlar project, which developed advanced simulation and optimization techniques for power-electronic system design. The goal of the study presented in the award-winning paper was to extend the parameters used to characterize common-mode interference beyond the single unit currently used. The scientists identified the current loops with the highest and lowest interference and then calculated their level of inductive coupling using the PEEC method. This systematic approach yielded deeper insight into the current paths critical in filter design.