Hillcrest Energy Technologies has released peer-reviewed test results for its zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) inverter. The study compares the company's technology against a standard hard-switched silicon carbide inverter.
During testing with an 80 kW motor, the ZVS inverter reduced voltage overshoot at the motor terminal by over 90 percent. Specifically, the overshoot dropped from 50 percent above the DC-link voltage to 4 percent.
At 470 V DC and 40 kHz, the voltage slew rate decreased from approximately 16 V/ns to 1.4 V/ns. Additionally, emissions above 5 MHz were reduced by about 25 dB. The ZVS method extends the voltage transition by roughly ten times.
Under double-pulse conditions with a 50-meter cable at 470 V DC, the peak load voltage stayed below twice the DC-link voltage at approximately 920 V. The technology increases the critical cable length to about 18 meters.
The findings appear in the paper titled High-Performance ZVS Inverter for Traction Systems Under Reflected Wave Conditions. This work has been accepted for the IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Expo in 2026.
