Inrush Current Effects on SiC-MOSFETs for LLC Converter

Abstract

We prototyped an LLC converter using SiC-MOSFET and GaN-FET to study the device dependence of the resonant type converter characteristics and high current effects on the devices during the start-up mode.Under steady state operation, no observable difference exists between the SiC-MOSFET and GaN-FET in current and voltage waveforms and energy conversion efficiency is over 96% regardless of the device used.However, significant differences exist during the start-up mode. As for the SiC-MOSFET, the inrush current is at maximum in the first few cycles and gradually decreases to steady state. As for the effects on the device, there are no characteristic changes or current waveform fluctuation during the start-up period even after 50 repetitions.Alternately, in the case of GaN-FET, the maximum inrush current is at the first cycle and decreases rapidly to half only a few cycles later. The multi-pulse experiment shows that a single high current pulse degrades the I-V characteristics of the device and the subsequent pulse current decreases. It is also noted that the degradation could be overcome by a longer interval after the high current, however, no further improvement is seen above a 20 µs interval.