MOSFET Body Diode Research Articles

Analysis on the Self-Sustained Oscillation of SiC MOSFET Body Diode

Under certain conditions, self-sustained oscillation may occur during reverse recovery transient of high-side silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET body diode in the half-bridge circuit. In this article, two distinct positive feedback mechanisms that can excite the self-sustained oscillation are identified based on the double-pulse test. To investigate the instability of the two types of oscillation, a small signal ac model of the half-bridge circuit is proposed. With the model utilized, the parametric sensitivities of various parameters on the self-sustained oscillation are analyzed. The analyses reveal the oscillatory criteria, which provides effective guidelines to prevent the oscillation. In the end, the oscillation prevention guidelines are validated by the experiment. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed theoretical treatment can provide reasonable guidelines to suppress the two types of self-sustained oscillation.

Online Junction Temperature Extraction of SiC Power mosfets With Temperature Sensitive Optic Parameter (TSOP) Approach

Accurate information of the junction temperature of SiC power mosfet s ensures safe operation and helps reliability assessment of the devices. In this paper, an online junction temperature extraction method is proposed based on the electroluminescence phenomenon of the body diode of SiC power mosfet s. It is found that during the forward conduction interval of the body diode, visible blue light is emitted around the chip, which ascribes to the radiative recombination in the low doped region of SiC mosfet s. Experimental results suggest the light intensity changes linearly with the variation of the temperature and behaves as a temperature sensitive optic parameter (TSOP). Further, an electro-thermal-optic model is proposed to reveal the relationship between the electroluminescence intensity, forward current, and junction temperature. Based on the TSOP, an online junction temperature extraction method is proposed for SiC mosfet s and verified in an SiC mosfet based inverter. Compared with state-of-the-art methods, the proposed junction temperature measurement method is contactless and immune from the aging of the package.

Analysis and optimization of the switching noise for Super-junction MOSFET in full bridge converter system

In this paper, the switching noise of Super-junction MOSFET in full bridge converter system has been investigated. According to the experimental results, the largest noise is induced by the steep reverse recovery current variation (dirr/dt) during the Super-junction MOSFET body diode reverse recovery. In order to understand the phenomena, the TCAD simulations and analyses have been carried out. It is found that the reverse recovery currents in the cell region and the termination region combine to result in the steep dirr/dt. The current in cell region aggravates the current variation, however, the current in termination region contributes to alleviate the current variation. Furthermore, it is also shown that increasing the hole injection level in termination region can alleviate the dirr/dt, and then the switching noise is reduced effectively. Finally, an optimized structure with heavily doped main junction in the termination region is proposed for the SJ-MOSFET, which can increase the hole injection efficiency greatly to reduce the switching noise during the Super-junction MOSFET body diode reverse recovery.

Electroluminescence-Based Junction Temperature Measurement Approach for SiC Power MOSFETs

The measurement of the junction temperature of power semiconductor devices during operation is highly relevant for efficient power electronic applications. This paper presents a novel galvanic isolated sensing approach for the online junction temperature measurement of a silicon carbide (SiC) mosfet . It is based on the temperature-dependent changes in the spectrum of the light emission from the body diode of the SiC mosfet . The spectrum exhibits two characteristic peaks at roughly 380 nm and around 480 nm. The first peak's intensity increases with rising temperature, whereas the other decreases. Consequently, the junction temperature can be derived from the ratio of the filtered intensities of those two wavelength regions. The proposed method is studied on the basis of a virtual experiment and experimentally validated by means of static characterization and dynamic double pulse measurement.

An Investigation into the Dynamic Behavior of 3.3kV MOSFETs Body Diode

This paper presents a dynamic investigation of the body diode behavior of MOSFETs rated for 3.3kV applications. The body diodes of MOSFETs with different cell designs and pitch sizes have been used. The turn-off behavior of the body diode is compared to that of a 3.3kV JBS diode.

Industrial and Body Diode Qualification of Gen-III Medium Voltage SiC MOSFETs: Challenges and Solutions

In this work, we report the results of industrial qualification tests run on medium voltage SiC MOSFETs rated for 3.3 kV/40 A and 10 kV/15 A. The JEDEC JESD47J.01 standard was used as a guideline to conduct HTRB (High Temperature, Reverse Bias), HTGB (High Temperature, Gate Bias), and TDDB (Time Dependent Dielectric Breakdown) tests. No devices were found to have failed the qualification tests, and long oxide lifetime was projected for constant operation under positive bias. This paper also reports for the first time the results of qualification testing of the MOSFET body diode on a large population of medium voltage SiC MOSFETs. Constant current stress at a current equal to the device forward rating was applied for 1000 hours. No degradation of any device parameter was observed for 3 lots of devices at both the 3.3 kV and 10 kV voltage rating.

Analysis and Design Considerations of Efficiency Enhanced Hierarchical Battery Equalizer Based on Bipolar CCM Buck–Boost Units

Compared with the conventional hard switching battery equalizers, hierarchical battery equalizer based on the bipolar continuous-conduction mode buck-boost units could effectively reduce the switching loss and improve the conversion efficiency. This paper mainly addresses the key technical challenges associated with the optimal design of this battery equalizer. The inductor current is controlled to enter into the negative region. Thus, the mosfet body diode provides a freewheeling path for the inductor current during the dead band. This ensures zero-voltage switching turn-on of both power mosfets in each buck-boost unit without auxiliary snubbers. Therefore, the switching losses are significantly reduced. Meanwhile, the integral of the inductor negative current is precisely controlled to minimize the circulating current. This guarantees both minimized conduction losses and suitable equalization speed. Furthermore, an equalization algorithm, which compensates the battery internal resistance induced state-of-charge error, is proposed to improve the equalization accuracy. The operating principles and design considerations are analyzed in detail. An experimental prototype to balance four series-connected lithium-ion battery cells is implemented. The experimental results validate the design of the equalizer and demonstrate obvious efficiency enhancement over the conventional method.

Quantitative power loss analysis and optimisation in N th‐order low‐voltage multilevel converters

Focusing on cascaded H-bridge converters for grid-tie battery energy storage, a practical, analytical method is derived to evaluate the switching-associated power loss in multilevel converters, evaluated from a number of sources of loss. This new method is then used to find performance trends in the use of converters of increasing order over a range of switching frequencies. This includes an experimental analysis into predicting the performance of MOSFET body diodes. Our analysis with this model shows that a multilevel converter can have lower losses than the equivalent single bridge, three-level converter, particularly at higher switching frequencies, due to the availability of suitable switching devices. It also has interesting implications for enabling the use of cutting-edge non-silicon power switching devices to further improve potential efficiencies.

Bias temperature instability and condition monitoring in SiC power MOSFETs

Threshold voltage shift due to bias temperature instability (BTI) is a major concern in SiC power MOSFETs. The SiC/SiO2 gate dielectric interface is typically characterized by a higher density of interface traps compared to the conventional Si/SiO2 interface. The threshold voltage shift that arises from BTI has significant implications on the reliability of SiC power MOSFETs, hence, techniques for detecting the change in electrical parameters due to gate oxide degradation are desirable. Using accelerated high temperature gate bias stress tests on SiC MOSFETs, it has been shown that the output and transfer characteristics are affected by BTI. This paper presents the impact BTI induced threshold voltage shift on the forward voltage of the SiC MOSFET body diode during third quadrant operation. Using the forward voltage of the body diode during reverse conduction of low currents, threshold voltage shift can be detected, hence, the impact of BTI can be evaluated. The implications of the body diode forward voltage shift on junction temperature measurements are also studied in the context of TSEPs. The findings in this paper are important for engineers seeking to implement condition and health monitoring techniques on SiC power devices.

Temperature-Dependent Characterization, Modeling, and Switching Speed-Limitation Analysis of Third-Generation 10-kV SiC MOSFET

The temperature-dependent characteristics of the third-generation 10-kV/20-A SiC MOSFET including the static characteristics and switching performance are carried out in this paper. The steady-state characteristics, including saturation current, output characteristics, antiparallel diode, and parasitic capacitance, are tested. A double pulse test platform is constructed including a circuit breaker and gate drive with >10-kV insulation and also a hotplate under the device under test for temperature-dependent characterization during switching transients. The switching performance is tested under various load currents and gate resistances at a 7-kV dc-link voltage from 25 to 125 ˚C and compared with previous 10-kV MOSFETs. A simple behavioral model with its parameter extraction method is proposed to predict the temperature-dependent characteristics of the 10-kV SiC MOSFET. The switching speed limitations, including the reverse recovery of SiC MOSFET's body diode, overvoltage caused by stray inductance, crosstalk, heat sink, and electromagnetic interference to the control are discussed based on simulations and experimental results.

Comparison of SiC Voltage Source Inverters Using Synchronous Rectification and Freewheeling Diode

For power converters with inductive loads, a freewheeling path is needed for the current due to reactive power. The MOSFET synchronous rectification (SR) is widely used to reduce the conduction loss during the freewheeling period. Due to the wide band gap of silicon carbide (SiC), the intrinsic body diode of SiC MOSFET exhibits a high voltage drop. Hence, an antiparallel SiC Schottky diode is normally implemented to eliminate its conduction. However, the external SiC Schottky diode is not fully utilized as it only works during the dead time. In this paper, the hard-switching SR is investigated in an SiC three-phase inverter and compared with a conventional inverter using freewheeling diode (FWD). An improved power loss model for the two inverters has been developed. It is found that the inverter using SR has higher efficiency due to the smaller switching loss. A 7-kW prototype of SiC three-phase inverter is built, which achieves a peak efficiency of 98.8% ( $\pm$ 0.15%) and 98.5% ( $\pm$ 0.15%) at 40 kHz using SR and FWD, respectively. This paper confirms that the SiC MOSFET is an ideal candidate for the SR.

A Highly Reliable and High-Efficiency Quasi Single-Stage Buck–Boost Inverter

To regulate an output ac voltage in inverter systems having wide input dc voltage variation, a buck–boost power conditioning system is preferred. This paper proposes a novel high-efficiency quasi single-stage single-phase buck–boost inverter. The proposed inverter can solve current shoot-through problem and eliminate PWM dead time, which leads to greatly enhanced system reliability. It allows bidirectional power flow and can use MOSFET as switching device without body diode conducting. The reverse recovery issues and related loss of the MOSFET body diode can be eliminated. The use of MOSFET contributes to the reduction of switching and conduction losses. Also, the proposed inverter can be operated with simple pulse width modulation (PWM) control and can be designed at higher switching frequency to reduce the volume of passive components. The detailed experimental results are provided to show the advantages of the proposed inverter. Efficiency measurement shows that using simple PWM control the proposed inverter can obtain peak efficiency of 97.8% for 1.1-kW output power at 30-kHz switching frequency.

Demonstration of SiC-MOSFET Embedding Schottky Barrier Diode for Inactivation of Parasitic Body Diode

External Schottky barrier diodes (SBD) are generally used to suppress the conduction of the body diode of MOSFET. A large external SBD is required for a high voltage module because of its high specific resistance, while the forward voltage of SBD should be kept smaller than the built-in potential of the body diode. Embedding SBD into MOSFET with short cycle length increases maximum source-drain voltage where body diode remains inactive, resulting in high current density of SBD current. We propose a MOSFET structure where an SBD is embedded into each unit cell and an additional doping is applied, which allows high current density in reverse operation without any activation of body diode. The proposed MOSFET was successfully fabricated and much higher reverse current density was demonstrated compared to the external SBD. We can expect to reduce total chip size of high voltage modules using the proposed MOSFET embedding SBD.

Analysis of the reverse recovery oscillation of superjunction MOSFET body diode

The voltage and current oscillations occasionally occur during the reverse recovery transient of the superjunction MOSFET body diode. This paper identifies the unique reverse recovery oscillation characteristics of the superjunction MOSFET body diode. Base on the experimental investigation and theoretical analysis, the various reverse recovery oscillation mechanisms are clarified. At first, with a discrete 650V/47A superjunction MOSFET utilized, the high-frequency and low-frequency oscillation characteristics during the reverse recovery transient are obtained by the double-pulse test. After the theoretical analysis, it is found that the superjunction MOSFET body diode has various oscillation mechanisms depending on its drift region injection level. Under high-level injection condition, the high-frequency oscillation occurs due to the plasma extraction transient-time (PETT) effect. Under low-level injection condition, the body diode’s snappy reverse recovery results in the low-frequency LC oscillation. In the end of the paper, the oscillation behaviors under both high and low level injection conditions are reproduced by the mixed-mode numerical simulation, the simulation results validate the proposed oscillation mechanisms.

Body diode reliability investigation of SiC power MOSFETs

A special feature of vertical power MOSFETs, in general, is the inbuilt body diode which could eliminate the need of having to use additional anti-parallel diodes for current freewheeling in industrial inverter applications: this, clearly, subject to their demonstration of an acceptable level of reliability. Recent improvements in Silicon Carbide (SiC) power MOSFET device manufacturing technology has resulted in their wider commercial availability with different voltage and current ratings and from various manufacturers. Hence, it is essential to perform characterisation of its intrinsic body diode. This paper presents the reliability assessment of body diodes of latest generation discrete SiC power MOSFETs within a 3-phase 2-level DC-to-AC inverter representing realistic operating conditions for power electronic applications.

High-Efficiency Single-Phase AC–AC Converters Without Commutation Problem

This paper proposes single-phase direct pulsewidth modulation (PWM) buck-, boost-, and buck–boost-type ac–ac converters. The proposed converters are implemented with a series-connected freewheeling diode and MOSFET pair, which allows to minimize the switching and conduction losses of the semiconductor devices and resolves the reverse-recovery problem of body diode of MOSFET. The proposed converters are highly reliable because they can solve the shoot-through and dead-time problems of traditional ac–ac converters without voltage/current sensing module, lossy resistor–capacitor ( RC ) snubbers, or bulky coupled inductors. In addition, they can achieve high obtainable voltage gain and also produce output voltage waveforms of good quality because they do not use lossy snubbers. Unlike the recently developed switching cell (SC) ac–ac converters, the proposed ac–ac converters have no circulating current and do not require bulky coupled inductors; therefore, the total losses, current stresses, and magnetic volume are reduced and efficiency is improved. Detailed analysis and experimental results are provided to validate the novelty and merit of the proposed converters.

Comparative Simulation Study of Dynamic Behavior of the Body-Diode for 4H-SiC JFET and MOSFET

In switching applications with half-bridge like configurations the load current is commutated to the so-called reverse or body-diode of a switching device once each switching cycle. The bipolar charge generated in the switch in principle leads to a reverse recovery current and to additional losses. Though it is well known, that in silicon carbide these reverse recovery losses are very low compared to e.g. silicon devices, it turns out that depending on device structure and switching conditions the reverse recovery charge for the JFET may become larger than can be explainable by the stored bipolar charge. In this paper therefore we focus on a simulation study comparing the body-diode operation of common lateral channel silicon carbide JFET and MOSFET devices in a so-called double pulse measurement. It is shown, that the MOSFET body-diode operation still remains uncritical under very fast switching conditions, while the JFET body-diode exhibits a pronounced recovery current peak originating from a partial channel turn-on, and thus higher losses.

Reducing Switching Losses in BLDC Motor Drives by Reducing Body Diode Conduction of MOSFETs

This paper presents a new power electronic topology that aims to reduce switching losses in hard-switched inverters for brushless dc (BLDC) motor drives. This is achieved by extending the benefits of synchronous rectification used in low-voltage switch-mode dc-dc conversion to high-voltage motor drive applications and by minimizing the reverse conduction behavior of the intrinsic body diode of the synchronous rectifier MOSFET. The proposed topology for reducing body diode conduction includes the addition of a MOSFET in series with the rectifying switch and a SiC Schottky diode around the series switch combination. This paper focuses on theory, simulations, and experimental results and validates the benefits of proposed new topology for BLDC motor drive applications. An extension of this topology for sinusoidal back electromotive force permanent-magnet motors is also presented.

Gate-Controlled Reverse Recovery for Characterization of LDMOS Body Diode

Reverse recovery behavior is a useful tool for monitoring lifetime variations in the body diode of power MOSFETs. However, correct interpretation of the laterally diffused MOSFET (LDMOS) reverse recovery is challenging and requires special attention. This is due to the fact that the stored charges in the LDMOS drift region can flow from two different directions with each having different lifetime values. By studying the effects of diode reverse bias and gate voltage on the current flow direction during the reverse recovery, we present a simple approach to extract meaningful lifetime values, which can be used to determine material quality at different locations in the drift region of the LDMOS devices.

단상 계통연계형 태양광 발전 시스템용 고효율 MOSFET 인버터

A highly efficient MOSFET inverter for single-phase grid-connected photovoltaic power generation systems is presented in this paper. It is a full-MOSFET version of the conventional transformerless full-bridge inverter with dual L-C filters using unipolar PWM. The key idea lies on smart pre switching(SPS), which can make the large switching loss due to a poor reverse recovery of the MOSFET's body diode reduced dramatically. The validity of the proposed inverter is verified by experiment.