A Mitigation Strategy for the Short-Circuit Degradation in SiC MOSFETs

Abstract

The demand for highly reliable SiC MOSFETs is growing in the field applications, especially considering the short-circuit conditions. With the development of faster protection, short-circuit faults may occur many times within its expected service life, which only causes short-circuit degradation, rather than destructive failure. Based on finite element method simulation and experimental waveforms, this paper investigates the thermal and mechanical behavior of SiC MOSFET during short-circuit conditions, aiming to propose a package-level strategy to mitigate this short-circuit degradation and the results indicate that the front package design with sintered copper foil could be an effective approach.

A High-Voltage Pulse Modulator Composed of SiC MOSFETs/IGBTs in a Hybrid Connecting State

“…Because the vacuum load sparks frequently, the over-current will flow through the series switches in the modulator. The SiC MOSFETs could be degraded or even be damaged after many short circuits [20][21][22]. One method for limiting over-currents is increasing R 2 in Figure 1.…”