A SiC MOSFET Power Module With Integrated Gate Drive for 2.5 MHz Class E Resonant Converters

Industrial processes are still relying on high frequency converters based on vacuum tubes. Emerging silicon carbide semiconductor devices have potential to replace vacuum tubes and bring benefits for converters in the high frequency range. At high switching frequencies hard-switched gate drivers can enable high power density design, but suffer from high temperatures and require low inductive design. This paper addresses the two issues through integrated packaging. Integrating the hard-switched gate driver in the power module ensures a low inductive and high thermal conductive package design. The required gate-source loop inductance is calculated and obtained in the design through use of the simulation software ANSYS Q3D Extractor. Two silicon carbide MOSFET power module prototypes are manufactured on a AlN substrate and FR4 PCB, to compare the thermal performance of the gate driver in the two cases. The electrical performance of the final power module is verified at 2.5 MHz in a Class E resonant converter.

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