Concept of Enabling Over-Current Capability of Silicon-Carbide-Based Power Converters with Gate Voltage Augmentation

Shubhangi Bhadoria (), Qianwen Xu, Xiongfei Wang and Hans-Peter Nee
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Shubhangi Bhadoria: School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 11428 Stockholm, Sweden
Qianwen Xu: School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 11428 Stockholm, Sweden
Xiongfei Wang: School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 11428 Stockholm, Sweden
Hans-Peter Nee: School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 11428 Stockholm, Sweden

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 17, 1-8

Abstract: Various methods have been discussed in the literature regarding enabling the over-current (OC) capability of silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs. SiC MOSFETs can operate at up to 250 °C without failure. One of their features is to permit transient operation at elevated temperatures. This is possible if the stress on the gate oxide and packaging can be kept to a level that can be handled. This paper, instead, investigates the potential of enabling the OC capability of SiC MOSFETs by modifying the gate-source voltage. Since the on-state resistance ( R D S ( o n ) ) of SiC MOSFETs decreases with an increase in the gate voltage ( V G S ), the conduction losses can be decreased by increasing the V G S . Experiments and simulations have been performed to predict the R D S ( o n ) with the increase in V G S . It is found that the simulation models provided by manufacturers can be used to predict R D S ( o n ) accurately even outside the specifications, hence facilitating the precise estimation of conduction losses. It is also concluded that V G S can be increased during OCs in order to keep the conduction losses within the safety limits. A simple concept for implementing this function on a gate driver is also proposed with the additional functionality of increasing the V G S during OC by measuring the on-state voltage of the MOSFET.

Keywords: conduction losses; gate driver; gate oxide; HVDC; on-state resistance; over-current (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
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