Improving Surge Current Capability of SBD-Embedded SiC-MOSFETs in Parallel Connection by Applying Bipolar Mode Activation Cells

Abstract

A novel structure named bipolar mode activation cell (BMA cell) is demonstrated to prevent current crowding in parallel connections of SBD-embedded SiC-MOSFETs during a surge current event. In a BMA cell, where the SBD area is partly filled with p-body to inactivate the corresponding part of SBD, I-V characteristics are uniform for each parallel-connected device under a surge condition. The parallel-connected devices with BMA cell have more than 5 times higher surge current capability compared with the conventional devices owing to the absence of current crowding.