Potential of ultra-high voltage silicon carbide semiconductor devices

Abstract

In this paper, the theoretical performance of ultra-high voltage Silicon Carbide (SiC) based devices are investigated. The SiC semiconductor device conduction power loss and switching power loss are predicted and compared with different modeling approaches, for SiC metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) up to 20 kV and SiC gate turn-off (GTO) thyristors and SiC insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) up to 50 kV. A parameter sensitivity analysis has been performed to observe the device power loss under various operating conditions, for instance current density, temperature and charge carrier lifetime. Also, the maximum allowed current density and maximum switching frequency for a maximum chip power dissipation limit of 300 W/cm2 are investigated. The simulation results indicate that the SiC MOSFET has the highest current capability up to approximately 15 kV, while the SiC IGBT is suitable in the range of 15 kV to 35 kV, and thereafter the SiC GTO thyristor supersedes the loss performance from 35 kV to 50 kV.