Switching characteristics of silicon carbide power PiN diodes

• Published in: Solid-state electronics Vol. 44; no. 2; pp. 317 - 323
• Main Authors: Elasser, A., Ghezzo, M., Krishnamurthy, N., Kretchmer, J., Clock, A.W., Brown, D.M., Chow, T.P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.02.2000
• ISSN: 0038-1101; 1879-2405
• DOI: 10.1016/S0038-1101(99)00238-5

Recent progress in Silicon Carbide (SiC) material has made it feasible to build power devices with reasonable current density. This paper will present recent results including a comparison with state of the art silicon diodes. The effect of diode reverse recovery on the turn-on losses of a fast Si IGBT are studied both at room temperature and at 150°C. At room temperature, SiC diodes allow a reduction of IGBT turn on losses by as much as 6× and at 150°C junction temperature SiC diodes allow a turn-on loss reduction of between 16× and 3× when compared to fast and ultra fast silicon diodes respectively. Total losses due to reverse diode recovery were reduced by as much as 10× at 25°C and between 5× and 18× at 150°C. The yield and I– V characteristics of these diodes are also described.