A wide bandgap silicon carbide (SiC) gate driver for high-temperature and high-voltage applications

Conference · Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2014

OSTI ID:1150931

Lamichhane, Ranjan ^[1]; Ericson, Milton Nance ^[2]; Frank, Steven Shane ^[2]; Marlino, Laura D ^[2]; Mantooth, Alan ^[1]; Francis, Matt ^[3]; Shepherd, Dr. Paul ^[1]; Glover, Dr. Michael ^[1]; Podar, Mircea ^[2]; Perez, M ^[1]; Mcnutt, Tyler ^[3]; Whitaker, Mr. Bret ^[3]; Cole, Mr. Zach ^[3]

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1. University of Arkansas
2. ORNL
3. APEI, Inc.

Limitations of silicon (Si) based power electronic devices can be overcome with Silicon Carbide (SiC) because of its remarkable material properties. SiC is a wide bandgap semiconductor material with larger bandgap, lower leakage currents, higher breakdown electric field, and higher thermal conductivity, which promotes higher switching frequencies for high power applications, higher temperature operation, and results in higher power density devices relative to Si [1]. The proposed work is focused on design of a SiC gate driver to drive a SiC power MOSFET, on a Cree SiC process, with rise/fall times (less than 100 ns) suitable for 500 kHz to 1 MHz switching frequency applications. A process optimized gate driver topology design which is significantly different from generic Si circuit design is proposed. The ultimate goal of the project is to integrate this gate driver into a Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) charger module. The application of this high frequency charger will result in lighter, smaller, cheaper, and a more efficient power electronics system.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Work for Others (WFO)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1150931
• Resource Relation: Conference: 2014 IEEE 26th International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices & IC's (ISPSD), Waikoloa, HI, USA, 20140615, 20140619
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English