Potential of ultra-high voltage silicon carbide semiconductor devices

In this paper, the theoretical performance of ultra-high voltage Silicon Carbide (SiC) based devices are investigated. The SiC semiconductor device conduction power loss and switching power loss are predicted and compared with different modeling approaches, for SiC metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) up to 20 kV and SiC gate turn-off (GTO) thyristors and SiC insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) up to 50 kV. A parameter sensitivity analysis has been performed to observe the device power loss under various operating conditions, for instance current density, temperature and charge carrier lifetime. Also, the maximum allowed current density and maximum switching frequency for a maximum chip power dissipation limit of 300 W/cm2 are investigated. The simulation results indicate that the SiC MOSFET has the highest current capability up to approximately 15 kV, while the SiC IGBT is suitable in the range of 15 kV to 35 kV, and thereafter the SiC GTO thyristor supersedes the loss performance from 35 kV to 50 kV.

[1]  Hidekazu Tsuchida,et al.  Reduction of traps and improvement of carrier lifetime in 4H-SiC epilayers by ion implantation , 2007 .

[2]  Tsunenobu Kimoto,et al.  1330 V, 67 mΩ cm2 4H-SiC(0001) RESURF MOSFET , 2005 .

[3]  Ion I. Inculet,et al.  IEEE-industry applications society annual meeting: September 29–October 1, 1975, Atlanta, Georgia, USA , 1977 .

[4]  Andrew G. Glen,et al.  APPL , 2001 .

[5]  J. Palmour,et al.  Conductivity Anisotropy in Epitaxial 6H and 4H Sic , 1994 .

[6]  J. Lutz,et al.  Semiconductor Power Devices: Physics, Characteristics, Reliability , 2011 .

[7]  Philippe Godignon,et al.  A Survey of Wide Bandgap Power Semiconductor Devices , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[8]  T. Kimoto,et al.  Low Vf and highly reliable 16 kV ultrahigh voltage SiC flip-type n-channel implantation and epitaxial IGBT , 2013, 2013 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting.

[9]  Mietek Bakowski,et al.  Status and Prospects of SiC Power Devices , 2006, Materials Research Foundations.

[10]  Tsunenobu Kimoto,et al.  Ultrahigh-Voltage SiC p-i-n Diodes With Improved Forward Characteristics , 2015, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices.

[11]  B. Jayant Baliga,et al.  Fundamentals of Power Semiconductor Devices , 2008 .

[12]  T. Kimoto.  Material science and device physics in SiC technology for high-voltage power devices , 2015 .

[13]  Alex Q. Huang,et al.  Comparing SiC switching power devices: MOSFET, NPN transistor and GTO thyristor , 2000 .

[14]  S. Bhattacharya,et al.  Ultra high voltage IGBTs in 4H-SiC , 2013, The 1st IEEE Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications.

[15]  Lin Cheng,et al.  27 kV, 20 A 4H-SiC n-IGBTs , 2015 .

[16]  T. Kimoto,et al.  Dynamic characteristics of large current capacity module using 16-kV ultrahigh voltage SiC flip-type n-channel IE-IGBT , 2014, 2014 IEEE 26th International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices & IC's (ISPSD).

[17]  T. Kimoto,et al.  1330 V, 67 m/spl Omega//spl middot/cm/sup 2/ 4H-SiC(0001) RESURF MOSFET , 2005, IEEE Electron Device Letters.

[18]  Maurice Weiner,et al.  On the temperature coefficient of 4H-SiC BJT current gain , 2003 .

[19]  Feasibility of high voltage SiC thyristor in HVDC transmission , 2014, 2014 IEEE PES Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Engineering Conference (APPEEC).