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

doi:10.1109/TPEL.2018.2879511

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

Full Record
Other Related Research

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.

Copy to clipboard


                    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.  doi:10.1109/TPEL.2018.2879511.

Copy to clipboard


                    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.  doi:10.1109/TPEL.2018.2879511.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1558511.

Copy to clipboard


                    
@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}

}

Copy to clipboard

Journal Article:

Free Publicly Available Full Text

Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Publisher's Version of Record

DOI: 10.1109/TPEL.2018.2879511

Other availability

Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal

Save / Share:

Export Metadata

Save to My Library

Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections:

Dead-time optimization for SiC based voltage source converters using online condition monitoring

Conference Dyer, Jacob ; Zhang, Zheyu ; Wang, Fei ; ...

This paper introduces a dead-time optimization technique for a 2-level voltage source converter (VSC) using turn-off transition monitoring. Dead-time in a VSC impacts power quality, reliability, and efficiency. Silicon carbide (SiC) based VSCs are more sensitive to dead-time from increased reverse conduction losses and turn-off time variability with operating conditions and load characteristics. An online condition monitoring system for SiC devices has been developed using gate drive assist circuits and a micro-controller. It can be leveraged to monitor turn-off time and indicate the optimal dead-time in each switching cycle of any converter operation. It can also be used to specifymore »« less
DOI: 10.1109/WiPDA.2017.8170495

Full Text Available
Intelligent Gate Drive for Fast Switching and Crosstalk Suppression of SiC Devices

Journal Article Zhang, Zheyu ; Dix, Jeffery ; Wang, Fei Fred ; ... - IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics

This study presents an intelligent gate drive for silicon carbide (SiC) devices to fully utilize their potential of high switching-speed capability in a phase-leg configuration. Based on the SiC device's intrinsic properties, a gate assist circuit consisting of two auxiliary transistors with two diodes is introduced to actively control gate voltages and gate loop impedances of both devices in a phase-leg configuration during different switching transients. Compared to conventional gate drives, the proposed circuit has the capability of accelerating the switching speed of the phase-leg power devices and suppressing the crosstalk to below device limits. Based on Wolfspeed 1200-V SiCmore »« less
Cited by 3
DOI: 10.1109/TPEL.2017.2655496

Full Text Available
High precision gate signal timing control based active voltage balancing scheme for series-connected fast switching field-effect transistors

Conference Zhang, Zheyu ; Gui, Handong ; Niu, Jiahao ; ...

Due to the low availability, high cost, and limited performance of high voltage power devices in high voltage high power applications, series-connection of low voltage switches is commonly considered. Practically, because of the dynamic voltage unbalance and the resultant reliability issue, switches in series-connection are not popular, especially for fast switching field-effect transistors such as silicon (Si) super junction MOSFETs, silicon carbide (SiC) JFETs, SiC MOSFETs, and gallium nitride (GaN) HEMTs, since their switching performance is highly sensitive to gate control, circuit parasitics, and device parameters. In the end, slight mismatch can introduce severe unbalanced voltage. This paper proposes anmore »« less
DOI: 10.1109/APEC.2018.8341125

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

Journal Article Huque, Mohammad A ; Tolbert, Leon M ; Blalock, Benjamin ; ... - IET Proceedings on Power Electronics

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 asmore »« less
DOI: 10.1049/iet-pel.2008.0287
Silicon-on-insulator-based high-voltage, high-temperature integrated circuit gate driver for silicon carbide-based power field effect transistors

Journal Article Tolbert, Leon M ; Huque, Mohammad A ; Blalock, Benjamin J ; ... - IET Power Electronics

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 minimising 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 asmore »« less

Similar Records