Investigation of SiC MOSFET Body Diode Reverse Recovery and Snappy Recovery Conditions

Giuseppe Pennisi, Mario Pulvirenti, Luciano Salvo, Angelo Giuseppe Sciacca, Salvatore Cascino, Antonio Laudani, Nunzio Salerno and Santi Agatino Rizzo ()
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Giuseppe Pennisi: ST Microelectronics s.r.l., 95121 Catania, Italy
Mario Pulvirenti: ST Microelectronics s.r.l., 95121 Catania, Italy
Luciano Salvo: ST Microelectronics s.r.l., 95121 Catania, Italy
Angelo Giuseppe Sciacca: ST Microelectronics s.r.l., 95121 Catania, Italy
Salvatore Cascino: ST Microelectronics s.r.l., 95121 Catania, Italy
Antonio Laudani: Department of Electrical Electronic and Computer Engineering (DIEEI), University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy
Nunzio Salerno: Department of Electrical Electronic and Computer Engineering (DIEEI), University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy
Santi Agatino Rizzo: Department of Electrical Electronic and Computer Engineering (DIEEI), University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 11, 1-21

Abstract: This paper investigates the behavior of SiC MOSFETs body diode reverse recovery as a function of different operating conditions. The knowledge of their effects is crucial to properly designing and driving power converters based on SiC devices, in order to optimize the MOSFETs commutations aiming at improving efficiency. Indeed, reverse recovery is a part of the switching transient, but it has a significant role due to its impact on recovery energy and charge. The set of different operating conditions has been properly chosen to prevent or force the snappy recovery of the device under testing. The experimental results and specific software simulations have revealed phenomena unknown in the literature. More specifically, the analysis of the reverse recovery charge, Q rr , revealed two unexpected phenomena at high temperatures: it decreased with increasing gate voltage; the higher the device threshold, the higher the Q rr . TCAD-Silvaco (ATLAS v. 5.29.0.C) simulations have shown that this is due to a displacement current flowing in the drift region due to the output capacitance voltage variation during commutation. From the analysis of the snappy recovery, it has emerged that there is a minimum forward current slope, below which the reverse recovery cannot be snappy, even for a high current level. Once this current slope is reached, Q rr varies with the forward current only.

Keywords: body diode; MOSFET switching; power electronics; power electronics devices; reverse recovery; SiC MOSFETs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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