Online Junction Temperature Monitoring Using Intelligent Gate Drive for SiC Power Devices

Zhang, Zheyu; Dyer, Jacob; Wu, Xuanlyu; Wang, Fei; Costinett, Daniel; Tolbert, Leon M.; Blalock, Benjamin J.

doi:10.1109/TPEL.2018.2879511

Title: Online Junction Temperature Monitoring Using Intelligent Gate Drive for SiC Power Devices

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Abstract

Junction temperature is a prime design/operation parameter, as well as, a main indicator of device's health condition for power electronics converters. Compared to its silicon (Si) counterparts, it is more critical for silicon carbide (SiC) devices due to the reliability concern determined by the immaturity of new material and packaging. This paper presents a practical implementation using an intelligent gate drive for online junction temperature monitoring of SiC devices based on turn-off delay time as the thermo-sensitive electrical parameter. First, the sensitivity of turn-off delay time on the junction temperature for fast switching SiC devices is analyzed. A gate impedance regulation assist circuit is proposed to enhance the sensitivity by a factor of 60 and approach 736 ps/°C tested in the case study with little penalty on the power conversion performance. Next, an online monitoring unit based on gate assist circuits is developed to monitor the turn-off delay time in real time with the resolution less than 104 ps. As a result, the micro-controller is capable of “reading” junction temperature during the converter operation. Finally, a SiC-based half-bridge inverter is constructed with an intelligent gate drive consisting of the gate impedance regulation circuit and online turn-off delay time monitoring unit.more »« less

Authors:

^[1]; Dyer, Jacob ^[1];

^[2]; Wang, Fei ^[1]; Costinett, Daniel ^[1];

^[1]; Blalock, Benjamin J. ^[1]

Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
Northwestern Polytechnical Univ., Xi’an (China)

Publication Date:: 2018-11-05

Research Org.:: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE; National Science Foundation (NSF)

OSTI Identifier:: 1558511

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 34; Journal Issue: 8; Conference: 8. IEEE Energy Conversion Congress & Exposition, Milwaukee, WI (United States), 18-22 Sep 2016; Journal ID: ISSN 0885-8993

Publisher:: IEEE

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 42 ENGINEERING; Condition monitoring; intelligent gate drive; online junction temperature monitoring; silicon carbide (SiC) devices; turn-off delay time

Citation Formats


                    Zhang, Zheyu, Dyer, Jacob, Wu, Xuanlyu, Wang, Fei, Costinett, Daniel, Tolbert, Leon M., and Blalock, Benjamin J. Online Junction Temperature Monitoring Using Intelligent Gate Drive for SiC Power Devices.  United States: N. p., 2018. 
Web.  doi:10.1109/TPEL.2018.2879511.

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                    Zhang, Zheyu, Dyer, Jacob, Wu, Xuanlyu, Wang, Fei, Costinett, Daniel, Tolbert, Leon M., & Blalock, Benjamin J. Online Junction Temperature Monitoring Using Intelligent Gate Drive for SiC Power Devices.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2018.2879511

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                    Zhang, Zheyu, Dyer, Jacob, Wu, Xuanlyu, Wang, Fei, Costinett, Daniel, Tolbert, Leon M., and Blalock, Benjamin J. Mon .  
"Online Junction Temperature Monitoring Using Intelligent Gate Drive for SiC Power Devices".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2018.2879511.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1558511.

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@article{osti_1558511,

  title        = {Online Junction Temperature Monitoring Using Intelligent Gate Drive for SiC Power Devices},

  author       = {Zhang, Zheyu and Dyer, Jacob and Wu, Xuanlyu and Wang, Fei and Costinett, Daniel and Tolbert, Leon M. and Blalock, Benjamin J.},

  abstractNote = {Junction temperature is a prime design/operation parameter, as well as, a main indicator of device's health condition for power electronics converters. Compared to its silicon (Si) counterparts, it is more critical for silicon carbide (SiC) devices due to the reliability concern determined by the immaturity of new material and packaging. This paper presents a practical implementation using an intelligent gate drive for online junction temperature monitoring of SiC devices based on turn-off delay time as the thermo-sensitive electrical parameter. First, the sensitivity of turn-off delay time on the junction temperature for fast switching SiC devices is analyzed. A gate impedance regulation assist circuit is proposed to enhance the sensitivity by a factor of 60 and approach 736 ps/°C tested in the case study with little penalty on the power conversion performance. Next, an online monitoring unit based on gate assist circuits is developed to monitor the turn-off delay time in real time with the resolution less than 104 ps. As a result, the micro-controller is capable of “reading” junction temperature during the converter operation. Finally, a SiC-based half-bridge inverter is constructed with an intelligent gate drive consisting of the gate impedance regulation circuit and online turn-off delay time monitoring unit. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and accuracy of the proposed approach.},

  doi          = {10.1109/TPEL.2018.2879511},

  journal      = {IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics},

  number       = 8,

  volume       = 34,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {2018},

  month        = {11}

}

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