Electro-Thermal Behaviour of a SiC JFET Stressed by Lightning Induced Over-Voltages

Abstract

SiC JFETs are experimentally tested to verify their robustness against lightning induced strokes. The experimental setup is fully described. A lightning surge generator is built and a SiC JFET is stressed. The full thermal response of the SiC JFET internal temperature is obtained from an specific temperature estimation technique at different time steps during the surge test. This short time thermal response is compared and validated by a conventional 1D thermal model. This work shows that for a moderate lightning stroke, according to standards [1], the JFET temperature rise is less than 60 °C, which is acceptable in most circumstances.