2021 journal article

A New User-Configurable Method to Improve Short-Circuit Ruggedness of 1.2-kV SiC Power MOSFETs

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, 36(2), 2059–2067.

co-author countries: United States of America πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ
author keywords: MOSFET; Silicon carbide; Logic gates; Silicon; Topology; Switching loss; Switches; Power MOSFET; programmable control; robustness; short-circuit currents; silicon carbide
Source: Web Of Science
Added: October 19, 2020

Silicon carbide (SiC) power MOSFETs have been commercialized to replace silicon insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) in power conversion applications. However, the short-circuit ruggedness of SiC power MOSFETs must be enhanced to match that of Si IGBTs for application in motor drives for electric vehicles. A new, user-configurable method with a series-connected, Si enhancement mode MOSFET (EMM) is demonstrated to improve the short-circuit withstand time of commercially available 1.2-kV SiC power MOSFETs by 86% with a 4.2% increase in on-resistance and a 13% increase in switching loss. In contrast, operating the 1.2-kV SiC power MOSFET with a reduced gate bias of 15 V produces an 80% improvement in short-circuit withstand time with 31% increase in on-resistance and a 31% increase in switching loss. It is demonstrated that the drain of the EMM can be used as a sensing node to monitor on-state current and to detect short-circuit events.