Research on Characteristics of SiC FET/Si IGBT and SiC MOSFET/Si IGBT Hybrid Switches

Abstract

Hybrid switches, e.g., configured by parallel connection of Si IGBT and SiC MOSFET, have been approved to be an optimal solution, which can reduce cost and meanwhile increase the efficiency. The latest generation SiC FETs of UnitedSiC are becoming increasingly popular. Apart from the low on-resistance and good switching performances, main benefits of SiC FETs are the gate drive voltage consistent with the traditional Si IGBTs and avoiding the gate oxygen layer reliability trap, which is existed in the SiC MOSFET. Therefore, this paper proposes a SiC FET/Si IGBT hybrid switch. Both the dynamic and static characteristics between the proposed SiC FET/Si IGBT and traditional SiC MOSFET/Si IGBT hybrid switches are compared under the same test conditions. The simulation results clearly show that the proposed SiC FET/Si IGBT hybrid switch has lower forward conduction resistance, smaller switching losses, lower reverse conduction voltage drop and better reverse recovery performances.