SOI-Based High-Voltage, High-Temperature Integrated Circuit Gate Driver for SiC-Based Power FETs

Journal Article · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2010 · IET Proceedings on Power Electronics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1049/iet-pel.2008.0287· OSTI ID:1037127

Huque, Mohammad A ^[1]; Tolbert, Leon M ^[1]; Blalock, Benjamin ^[2]; Islam, Syed K ^[2]

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1. ORNL
2. University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK)

Silicon carbide (SiC)-based field effect transistors (FETs) are gaining popularity as switching elements in power electronic circuits designed for high-temperature environments like hybrid electric vehicle, aircraft, well logging, geothermal power generation etc. Like any other power switches, SiC-based power devices also need gate driver circuits to interface them with the logic units. The placement of the gate driver circuit next to the power switch is optimal for minimizing system complexity. Successful operation of the gate driver circuit in a harsh environment, especially with minimal or no heat sink and without liquid cooling, can increase the power-to-volume ratio as well as the power-to-weight ratio for power conversion modules such as a DC-DC converter, inverter etc. A silicon-on-insulator (SOI)-based high-voltage, high-temperature integrated circuit (IC) gate driver for SiC power FETs has been designed and fabricated using a commercially available 0.8-m, 2-poly and 3-metal bipolar-complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-double diffused metal oxide semiconductor (DMOS) process. The prototype circuit-s maximum gate drive supply can be 40-V with peak 2.3-A sourcing/sinking current driving capability. Owing to the wide driving range, this gate driver IC can be used to drive a wide variety of SiC FET switches (both normally OFF metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) and normally ON junction field effect transistor (JFET)). The switching frequency is 20-kHz and the duty cycle can be varied from 0 to 100-. The circuit has been successfully tested with SiC power MOSFETs and JFETs without any heat sink and cooling mechanism. During these tests, SiC switches were kept at room temperature and ambient temperature of the driver circuit was increased to 200-C. The circuit underwent numerous temperature cycles with negligible performance degradation.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
• Sponsoring Organization: EE USDOE - Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1037127
• Journal Information: IET Proceedings on Power Electronics, Journal Name: IET Proceedings on Power Electronics Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 3; ISSN 1755-4535
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS
47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION
AMBIENT TEMPERATURE
ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
FIELD EFFECT TRANSISTORS
HEAT SINKS
INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
INVERTERS
MOSFET
OXIDES
PERFORMANCE
POWER GENERATION
SILICON CARBIDES
SWITCHES