A High-Speed Gate Driver with PCB-Embedded Rogowski Switch-Current Sensor for a 10 kV, 240 A, SiC MOSFET Module

High-voltage SiC MOSFET modules are revolutionizing modern high power electronics owing to their high blocking voltage, low conduction resistance, and fast switching frequency. A 10 kV, 240 A SiC MOSFET module has recently become a candidate to build medium-voltage converters. The MOSFET module comprises three independent submodules that can be configured as three phase-legs, or one half-bridge by paralleling. To maximize its performance, this paper presents a smart gate driver design for this particular semiconductor device. The design concentrates on a high-current booster stage and a high-bandwidth PCB-embedded Rogowski switch-current sensors for the paralleled submodules. The PCB layout has satisfied high-voltage clearance and creepage standards. Finally, the booster current sharing and RSCS performance have been experimentally validated.

[1]  Dushan Boroyevich,et al.  Design and Testing of 6 kV H-bridge Power Electronics Building Block Based on 10 kV SiC MOSFET Module , 2018, 2018 International Power Electronics Conference (IPEC-Niigata 2018 -ECCE Asia).

[2]  David Grider,et al.  10 kV and 15 kV silicon carbide power MOSFETs for next-generation energy conversion and transmission systems , 2014, 2014 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE).

[3]  Bin Wu,et al.  A special high-frequency soft-switched high-voltage isolated DC/DC power supply for multiple GCT gate drivers , 2010, 2010 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition.

[4]  Dushan Boroyevich,et al.  Integrated switch current sensor for shortcircuit protection and current control of 1.7-kV SiC MOSFET modules , 2016, 2016 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE).

[5]  He Li,et al.  A 15 kV SiC MOSFET gate drive with power over fiber based isolated power supply and comprehensive protection functions , 2016, 2016 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC).

[6]  P. K. Steimer,et al.  Contactless energy transmission for an isolated 100W gate driver supply of a medium voltage converter , 2009, 2009 35th Annual Conference of IEEE Industrial Electronics.

[7]  Dushan Boroyevich,et al.  Gate driver design for 1.7kV SiC MOSFET module with Rogowski current sensor for shortcircuit protection , 2016, 2016 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC).

[8]  Dushan Boroyevich,et al.  Design of a high-bandwidth Rogowski current sensor for gate-drive shortcircuit protection of 1.7 kV SiC MOSFET power modules , 2015, 2015 IEEE 3rd Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications (WiPDA).

[9]  Dushan Boroyevich,et al.  Design and Testing of 1 kV H-bridge Power Electronics Building Block Based on 1.7 kV SiC MOSFET Module , 2018, 2018 International Power Electronics Conference (IPEC-Niigata 2018 -ECCE Asia).

[10]  Edward VanBrunt,et al.  The next generation of high voltage (10 kV) silicon carbide power modules , 2016, 2016 IEEE 4th Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications (WiPDA).

[11]  S. Bhattacharya,et al.  Design Comparison of High-Power Medium-Voltage Converters Based on a 6.5-kV Si-IGBT/Si-PiN Diode, a 6.5-kV Si-IGBT/SiC-JBS Diode, and a 10-kV SiC-MOSFET/SiC-JBS Diode , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications.

[12]  Dimosthenis Peftitsis,et al.  Auxiliary power supply for medium-voltage modular multilevel converters , 2015, 2015 17th European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications (EPE'15 ECCE-Europe).

[13]  Subhashish Bhattacharya,et al.  A Transformerless Intelligent Power Substation: A three-phase SST enabled by a 15-kV SiC IGBT , 2015, IEEE Power Electronics Magazine.

[14]  Rik W. De Doncker,et al.  A galvanically isolated gate driver with low coupling capacitance for medium voltage SiC MOSFETs , 2016, 2016 18th European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications (EPE'16 ECCE Europe).