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Direct bypass to DC-DC boost converter in traction inverter increases converter's capability and efficiency significantly by providing a lower loss path for power flow between the battery and DC-link terminal. A bypass using diode is an excellent solution to achieve this capability at low cost and system complexity. Bypass diode operates in the linear operating region (DC Q-point) when the battery discharges through the bypass diode to drive the electric motors. Therefore, thermal stress on the DC-link capacitor is shared between the input and DC-link capacitors through the bypass diode. On the other hand, inverters introduce voltage oscillation in the DC-link terminal which results in unwanted energy oscillation through the bypass diode during battery charging. Both of these phenomena have been explained in details.

Variable Voltage Converter (VVC) is adopted in Power-Split structure of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) to optimize the Electric-Drive (e-Drive) system performance. With the wider availability of Silicon Carbide (SiC) power semiconductor for automotive applications, there are new opportunities to further optimize and improve performance of VVC, e.g. lower power loss, smaller size, and lighter weight, comparing to use traditional Silicon (Si) IGBT and diode. In this paper, a SiC based VVC is designed, prototyped, and evaluated. In order to maximize the benefits of SiC power devices in VVC application, each key component is carefully designed and selected, including SiC power module, power capacitor, and power inductor. The characterization and evaluation results demonstrate the benefits of advanced SiC devices in VVC design optimization, and such benefits quantified in this paper.