Characterization and Evaluation of 3.3 kV 5 A SiC MOSFET for Solid-State Transformer Applications

Abstract

The SiC MOSFETs are replacing Si IGBTs in power electronics applications due to its several intrinsic features, such as higher temperature operation availability, higher breakdown electric field and higher switching speed. However, for the medium voltage range above 1.7 kV, the SiC MOSFETs are still at their early development stage and are not ready for commercialization. This paper presents the characterization and evaluation of 3.3 kV, 5 A SiC MOSFETs. They are the samples from GeneSiC and are not commercialized yet. Static and dynamic tests are performed for the device at different working conditions. For static tests, I-V characteristics, Rds(on) and parasitic capacitors characteristics were recorded for different temperatures. The dynamic tests were done with a Double Pulse Tester (DPT) with an inductive load up to 1.8 kV. The switching speed and switching loss are evaluated and analyzed for different conditions. A simple energy effective and charge effective Coss calculation method through DPT test results is proposed. The test results show its potential in medium voltage applications, especially in multistage cascaded topology.