Design and Evaluation of a 6.5 kV, 400 A Super-Cascode Power Module

Abstract

As the demand for medium-voltage power semiconductors continues to rise, the super-cascode switch has emerged as a promising solution. This paper presents the design, implementation, and experimental evaluation of a 6.5 kV, 400 A super-cascode power module. This treatment includes an in-depth analysis of the theory of operation for this topology, as well as a set of design guidelines to facilitate the realization of practical implementations. To validate the functionality and performance of the realized prototype module, double-pulse test experiments were conducted under a wide range of operating conditions, deploying metrics specially targeted for the super-cascode switch. These experimental results demonstrate that adherence to the design guidelines provided in this paper yields a super-cascode switch with exceptional performance. In fact, the super-cascode module evaluated in this paper achieves switching performance on par with that of medium voltage SiC MOSFET modules, and far beyond that of medium voltage Si IGBT modules. Overall, this investigation contributes to the understanding of the factors driving the operation and performance of the super-cascode switch, especially under high current conditions.