Experimental comparison of SiC GTO and ETO for pulse power applications * * Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51577054) and the Science and Technology Major Project of Hunan Province (No. 2017GK1020).

Abstract

Silicon carbide (SiC) emitter turn-off thyristors (ETOs) are very promising high power capacity semiconductor devices for high voltage and high power density power systems and pulse power applications. However, reports on comparison of high voltage SiC GTOs and ETOs in pulse power applications have been rare. In this paper, a comprehensive study on a 6.5 kV SiC GTO and ETO are carried out to demonstrate the superior performance of the SiC ETO over the GTO in pulse power application. A 6.5 kV SiC ETO was designed and tested with a printed circuit board (PCB) integrated gate driver. The forward conduction characteristics of the SiC ETO and GTO in elevated temperatures are measured and compared, showing the excellent temperature coefficient of the SiC ETO's output characteristics. Their turn-off characteristics with resistive load are measured and compared, demonstrating that the SiC ETO has much faster switching speed and smaller turn-off loss. Experimental results demonstrate that the SiC ETO has a better performance, especially with respect to its switching characteristics, making it a very competitive candidate for high power and pulse power applications.