Comparative Study of SiC MOSFET and JFET using an Active Gate Driver

Abstract

In this paper, a comparative study between the gate driving responses of a 1200V 65A SiC Cascoded Junction Field Effect Transistor (JFET) and a 1200V 56A SiC Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) has been explored. Firstly, a Conventional Gate Drive (CGD) circuit is implemented, followed by the proposal and implementation of an Active Gate Driver (AGD) circuit. Switching characteristics during turn-on and turn-off for both the CGD and AGD topologies are compared for the devices and it is observed that the proposed AGD circuit is capable of improving the switching stress as well as the switching losses. It is also observed that the switching losses for the JFET are lower than those of the MOSFET under identical test conditions, making it a more suitable choice for various applications.