Inverter chip - a key to modern power conversion
What is an inverter chip?
According to the WSTS classification standard, semiconductor chips can be mainly divided into four categories: integrated circuits, discrete devices, sensors and optoelectronic devices. Among them, integrated circuits can be subdivided into memories, analog chips, logic chips and microprocessors. Analog chips can be further subdivided into power devices, amplifiers, filters, feedback circuits, reference source circuits, switched capacitor circuits and other products.
The chips in photovoltaic inverters mainly include power devices and integrated circuit (IC) chips.
Power devices mainly include semiconductor switching devices IGBT and MOSFET, which are used for power conversion. IGBT has larger power and is mainly used in medium and high power inverters. MOSFET has low power and is mainly used in small and medium power inverters. IC chips include microprocessors, such as MCU (single chip microcomputer), DSP (digital signal processing), ARM, CPLD (high-speed programmable logic device), etc.
Functional chips, such as digital-to-analog conversion, optocoupler, operational amplifier, logic gate circuit, clock, memory and other integrated circuit chips, are used for communication circuits, detection circuits, drive circuits, auxiliary power supplies, etc., with algorithm control, task processing, data storage, etc. fetch, power management, device driver, power conversion and control functions.
Inverter chips account for about 20% of the cost of household and small inverters, of which power devices account for 10-12% and integrated circuit IC chips account for about 8-10%.
Why is the inverter chip so important?
The inverter chip is the core component of the energy storage inverter. It is mainly composed of power semiconductor devices, drive circuits, control circuits, etc. The inverter chip industry chain includes design, manufacturing, packaging, testing, and sales. Among them, inverter chip design occupies the top priority, and the core strength of the chip is also focused on chip design. The development direction of inverter chips is faster, more powerful and more efficient.
Power device materials are developing rapidly, and are developing from traditional silicon-based power devices to wide bandgap material (SiC, GaN) power devices. Silicon carbide is currently the most mature third-generation semiconductor material. It can be compared like this, silicon-based materials are like polycrystalline silicon cells, and silicon carbide materials are like monocrystalline silicon cells.
IGBT is like a component. Power devices using silicon carbide have the advantages of high temperature resistance, high voltage resistance, fast switching speed, and high efficiency. A good inverter chip can significantly reduce product power consumption, improve energy conversion efficiency and reduce product size.
What functions does the inverter chip have?
1. PWM generation: The control chip can generate pulse width modulation (PWM) signals, which are used to control the switching devices of dc to ac inverter.
2. Current and voltage control: The control chip can monitor and control the output current and voltage of the inverter to ensure that the output current and voltage meet the requirements and maintain the stable operation of the inverter.
3. Protection functions: Control chips usually have a variety of protection functions, such as over-current protection, over-voltage protection, over-temperature protection, etc., to protect the inverter and other equipment from damage.
4. Communication interface: Some control chips also have communication interfaces, such as UART, SPI, etc., which can communicate with other system components to achieve data transmission and remote monitoring.
How to choose a suitable inverter chip?
There are many types of inverter chips, so you need to pay special attention when selecting the model and capacity. Especially in solar power generation systems, the efficiency of the inverter chip is an important factor in determining the capacity of the solar cell and battery.
① When selecting an inverter chip, you must first consider having sufficient rated capacity to meet the electrical power requirements of the equipment under larger loads. For inverter chips that use a single device as the load, the selection of the rated capacity is relatively simple.
② When the electrical equipment is a purely resistive load or the power factor is greater than 0.9, the rated capacity of the inverter chip should be selected to be 1.1 to 1.15 times the capacity of the electrical equipment. At the same time, the inverter chip should also have the ability to withstand capacitive and inductive load impacts.
③ For general inductive loads, such as motors, refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, high-power water pumps, etc., when starting, the instantaneous power may be 5 to 6 times its rated power. At this time, the inverter chip will bear a great momentary surge.
For this type of system, the rated capacity of the inverter chip should leave sufficient margin to ensure that the load can be started reliably. A high-performance inverter chip can start at full load multiple times without damaging the power device. For its own safety, small inverter chips sometimes need to use soft start or current limiting start.
For more commonly used models of energy storage inverter chips as well as related user manuals, parameters and other solution information, please contact us. We will serve you wholeheartedly.
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