Overview of High Voltage SiC Power Semiconductor Devices: Development and Application

Research on high voltage(HV)silicon carbide(SiC)power semiconductor devices has attracted much attention in recent years.This paper overviews the development and status of HV SiC devices.Meanwhile,benefits of HV SiC devices are presented.The technologies and challenges for HV SiC device application in converter design are discussed.The state-of-the-art applications of HV SiC devices are also reviewed.

Effect of NO annealing on charge traps in oxide insulator and transition layer for 4H-SiC metal–oxide–semiconductor devices

The effect of nitric oxide（NO） annealing on charge traps in the oxide insulator and transition layer in n-type4H–Si C metal–oxide–semiconductor（MOS） devices has been investigated using the time-dependent bias stress（TDBS）,capacitance–voltage（C–V）,and secondary ion mass spectroscopy（SIMS）.It is revealed that two main categories of charge traps,near interface oxide traps（Nniot） and oxide traps（Not）,have different responses to the TDBS and C–V characteristics in NO-annealed and Ar-annealed samples.The Nniotare mainly responsible for the hysteresis occurring in the bidirectional C–V characteristics,which are very close to the semiconductor interface and can readily exchange charges with the inner semiconductor.However,Not is mainly responsible for the TDBS induced C–V shifts.Electrons tunneling into the Not are hardly released quickly when suffering TDBS,resulting in the problem of the threshold voltage stability.Compared with the Ar-annealed sample,Nniotcan be significantly suppressed by the NO annealing,but there is little improvement of Not.SIMS results demonstrate that the Nniotare distributed within the transition layer,which correlated with the existence of the excess silicon.During the NO annealing process,the excess Si atoms incorporate into nitrogen in the transition layer,allowing better relaxation of the interface strain and effectively reducing the width of the transition layer and the density of Nniot.

A Hybrid Si IGBT and SiC MOSFET Module Development

A compact wirebond packaged phase-leg SiC/Si hybrid module was designed,developed,and tested.Details of the layout and gate drive designs are described.The IC chip for gate drive is carefully selected and compared.Dual pulse test confirmed that,the switching loss of hybrid module is close to pure SiC MOSFET module,and it is much less than pure Si IGBT device.The cost of hybrid module is closer to Si IGBT.

Review of Si IGBT and SiC MOSFET Based on Hybrid Switch

SiC Hybrid switch(HyS)combines low conduction loss of Si IGBT and low switching loss of SiC MOSFET,and the cost is closer to that of Si IGBT.The promising high performances of HyS will bring considerable achievement in terms of enhancing power density of a converter system.By reviewing the gate drive pattern,gate drive hardware,current sharing,module design,converter design,and cost,this paper introduces state-of-the-art SiC HyS.

Evaluation of 1.2 kV SiC MOSFETs in Multilevel Cascaded H-bridge Three-phase Inverter for Medium-voltage Grid Applications

A study is conducted to evaluate 1.2 kV silicon-carbide(SiC)MOSFETs in a cascaded H-bridge(CHB)three-phase inverter for medium-voltage applications.The main purpose of this topology is to remove the need for a bulky 60 Hz transformer normally used to step up the output signal of a voltage source inverter to a medium-voltage level.Using SiC devices(1.2-6.5 kV SiC MOSFETs)which have a high breakdown voltage,enables the system to meet and withstand the medium-voltage stress using only a minimal number of cascaded modules.The SiC-based power electronics when used in the presented topology considerably reduce the complexity usually encountered when Si devices are used to meet the medium-voltage level and power scalability.Simulation and preliminary experimental results on a low-voltage prototype verifies the nine-level CHB topology presented in this study.

A Review of WBG and Si Devices Hybrid Applications

In recent years,next-generation power semiconductor devices,represented by silicon carbide(SiC)and gallium nitride(GaN),have gradually emerged.Because wide-bandgap(WBG)devices have better electrical characteristics than those of silicon(Si)based devices,they have attracted increased attention both from academic researchers and industrial engineers.Employing WBG devices will further improve the efficiency and power density of power converters.However,the current price of WBG devices remains extremely high.Thus,some researches have focused on the hybrid utilization of WBG devices and Si-based devices to achieve a tradeoff between the performance and cost.To summarize the current research on WBG/Si hybrid applications,the issues mentioned above with representative research approaches,results,and characteristics,are systematically reviewed.Finally,the current research on WBG/Si hybrid applications and their future trends are discussed.