Dynamic Behavior of a Medium-Voltage <italic>N</italic>-Channel SiC-IGBT With Ultrafast Switching Performance of 300 kV/μs

Abstract

An n-channel silicon carbide (SiC) insulated gate bipolar transistor with a reverse blocking voltage of 16 kV was fabricated on a 4H-SiC carbon face. A double-pulse test with a dc-bus voltage of 5 kV and an inductive load was conducted to observe the dynamic behavior. It was found that the separation of the current-path for the gate driving circuit from the main circuit is essential to secure a stable operation. The new power module, with a gate driving circuit isolated from the main circuit and ultrafast switching speed of 303 kV/μs, has been successfully developed. Moreover, an extremely low switching loss of 3 mJ was measured for turn-on and 3.6 mJ for turn-off. The benefits of an increase in switching speed together with a reduction in switching losses were also experimentally confirmed.