High dI/dt Pulse Switching of 1.0 cm2 SiC GTOs

Abstract

The Army Research Laboratory has collaborated with Cree, Inc. and Silicon Power Corp. to develop 9 kV-blocking, 1.0 cm2Super-GTOs. In this study, several 1.0 cm2GTOs were individually switched up to 6.0 kA in a low-inductance, highdI/dt(2.1 kA/µs) circuit to evaluate turn-on delay and optimize the gate control. Turn-on delay was evaluated relative to gate drive current, and the delay was reduced by 1.1 µs when gate amplitude was increased from 1 A to 8 A. Increasing gate current delivered to each GTO also successfully reduced variation in turn-on delay from device to device by at least 50%, and mitigated mismatch in turn-on between pairs of GTOs switched in parallel. As silicon carbide material processing and device development continue to evolve, the ultimate solution will be to reduce remaining material defects and to control minority carrier diffusion length through more uniform doping across the wafer. These steps will enable modules of parallel GTOs to perform at maximum capability.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
May 01, 2012
Source ID
10.4028/www.scientific.net/msf.717-720.1155

Entities

People

  • Aderinto Ogunniyi
  • Anant K. Agarwal
  • Charles Scozzie
  • Heather O'Brien
  • Q. Jon Zhang
  • Victor Temple
  • William Shaheen

Organizations

  • United States Army Research Laboratory
  • Wolfspeed

Tags

Readers

  • Electrical Engineering
  • Semiconductor Device Technology