Investigation of partial Discharge Suppression in Electronic Converters using Electrets based on Corona Charging

Abstract

Partial Discharge (PD) is a limiting factor in electrical insulation and electrical wires especially in power electronics related setup/applications. Basically, it behaves as the conduction bridge between a conductor and an insulator where voltage travels from conductor to insulator crossing the insulation components and makes the components less efficient in high voltage operations. To overcome the limitations of partial discharge, certain methods are being designed such as geometry-based methods and material-based methods etc., just to mention a few. In the former solution, the geometry of the components is changed in such a way that partial discharge is reduced to much lower level, but these methods are very expensive and sophisticated at the same time, while the latter ones used specific kind of materials that are added to the power electronics components or systems so that the partial discharge can be suppressed. These methods include adding some substances that increase the viscosity, breaking point and potential of the components and comparatively less expensive in providing the efficient outcomes. Owing the on-board partial discharge limitations, in this research, a new method is contributed, in which the electronic components such as inverters, DC-DC converters and rectifiers are coated with ELECTRET with the help of Corona Charging, which helps reducing the partial discharge of the converters to an average of 5% in comparison with the conventional conformal coating and almost 20% as compared to the non-coated converters