On the perspectives of SiC MOSFETs in high-frequency and high-power isolated DC/DC converters
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Beschreibung
Increasing demand for efficiency and power density pushes Si-based devices to some of their inherent material limits, including those related to temperature operation, switching frequency, and blocking voltage. Recently, SiC-based power devices are promising candidates for high-power and high-frequency switching applications. Today, SiC MOSFETs are commercially available from several manufacturers. Although technology affiliated with SiC MOSFETs is improving rapidly, many challenges remain, and some of them are investigated in this work. The research work in this dissertation is divided into the three following parts.Firstly, the static and switching characteristics of the state-of-the-art 1.2 kV planar and double-trench SiC MOSFETs from two different manufacturers are evaluated. The effects of different biasing voltages, DC link voltages, and temperatures are analysed. The characterisation results show that the devices exhibit superior switching performances under different operating conditions. Moreover, several aspects of using the SiC MOSFET’s body diode in a DC/DC converter are investigated, comparing the body-diodes of planar and double-trench devices. Reverse recovery is evaluated in switching tests considering the case temperature, switching rate, forward current, and applied voltage.Based on the measurement results, the junction temperature is estimated to guarantee safe operation. A simple electro-thermal model is proposed in order to estimate the maximum allowed switching frequency based on the thermal design of the SiC devices. Using these results, hard- and soft-switching converters are designed, and devices are characterised as being in continuous operation at a very high switching frequency of 1 MHz. Thereafter, the SiC MOSFETs are operated in a continuous mode in a 10 kW / 100-250 kHz buck converter, comparing synchronous rectification, the use of the body diode, and the use of an external Schottky diode. Further, the parallel operation of the planar devices is considered. Thus, the paralleling of SiC MOSFETs is investigated before comparing the devices in continuous converter operation. In this regard, the impact of the most common mismatch parameters on the static and dynamic current sharing of the transistors is evaluated, showing that paralleling of SiC MOSFETs is feasible.Subsequently, an analytical model of SiC MOSFETs for switching loss optimisation is proposed. The analytical model exhibits relatively close agreement with measurement results under different test conditions. The proposed model tracks the oscillation effectively during both turn-on and –off transitions. This has been achieved by considering the influence of the most crucial parasitic elements in both power and gate loops.In the second part, a comprehensive short-circuit ruggedness evaluation focusing on different failure modes of the planar and double-trench SiC devices is presented. The effects of different biasing voltages, DC link voltages, and gate resistances are evaluated. Additionally, the temperature-dependence of the short-circuit capability is evaluated, and the associated failure modes are analysed. Subsequently, the design and test of two different methods for overcurrent protection are proposed. The desaturation technique is applied to the SiC MOSFETs and compared to a second method that depends on the stray inductance of the devices.Finally, the benefits of using SiC devices in continuous high-frequency, high-power DC/DC converters is experimentally evaluated. In this regard, a design optimisation of a high-frequency transformer is introduced, and the impact of different core materials, conductor designs, and winding arrangements are evaluated. A ZVZCS Phase-Shift Full-Bridge unidirectional DC/DC converter is proposed, using only the parasitic leakage inductance of the transformer. Experimental results for a 10 kW, (100-250) kHz prototype indicate an efficiency of up to 98.1% for the whole converter. Furthermore, an optimized control method is proposed to minimise the circulation current in the isolated bidirectional dual active bridge DC/DC converter, based on a modified dual-phase-shift control method. This control method is also experimentally compared with traditional single-phase shift control, yielding a significant improvement in efficiency. The experimental results confirm the theoretical analysis and show that the proposed control can enhance the overall converter efficiency and expand the ZVZCS range.
Autor*in
Abdullah Eial Awwad
Themen in »On the perspectives of SiC MOSFETs in high-frequency and high-power isolated DC/DC converters«
SiC MOSFET high frequency transformer SiC MOSFET parallel operation unidirectional DC DC converter dual active bridge Hochfrequenz-Transformator SiC-MOSFET-Parallelbetrieb unidirektionaler DC-DC-Konverter Dual-Aktiv-Brücken