Accurate Temperature Measurement of Active Area for Wide-Bandgap Power Semiconductors

Abstract

High breakdown voltage, low on-resistance, and high speed have made wide-bandgap power semiconductors suitable for many applications such as wireless power transfer, electric vehicles, hybrid and electric aircraft, and aerospace. However, the maximum power density of these devices is limited by the channel temperature rise. Thus, accurate temperature measurement of the active area is essential in research on wide-bandgap power semiconductors, which is often hampered by packaging and cooling methods. Employing temperature sensitive electrical parameters (TSEP) is a promising approach for the temperature measurement of power semiconductors. This paper uses a vector of three TSEPs, i.e., the gate-source voltage biased at weak, moderate, and strong inversion regions, to extract more information for accurate temperature measurement of the active area in GaN FETs.