Efficiency analysis of wide band-gap semiconductors for two-level and three-level power converters

© 2019 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes,creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Power devices based on wide band-gap materials are emerging as alternatives to silicon-based devices. These new devices allow designing and building converters with fewer power losses, and are thus more highly efficient than traditional power converters. Among the wide band-gap materials in use, silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) devices are the most promising because of their excellent properties and commercial availability. This paper compares the losses produced in two-level and three-level power converters that use the aforementioned technologies. In addition, we assess the impact on the converter performance caused by the modulation technique. Simulation results under various operating points are reported and compared.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Accurate Measurement of Dynamic on-State Resistances of GaN Devices under Reverse and Forward Conduction in High Frequency Power Converter

Because of trapped charges in GaN transistor structure, device dynamic ON-state resistance RDSon is increased when it is operated in high frequency switched power converters, in which device is possibly operated by zero voltage switching (ZVS) to reduce its turn-ON switching losses. When GaN transistor finishes ZVS during one switching period, device has been operated under both reverse and forward conduction. Therefore its dynamic RDSon under both conduction modes needs to be carefully measured to understand device power losses. For this reason, a measurement circuit with simple structure and fast dynamic response is proposed to characterise device reverse and forward RDSon. In order to improve measurement sensitivity when device switches at high frequency, a trapezoidal current mode is proposed to measure device RDSon under almost constant current, which resolves measurement sensitivity issues caused by unavoidable measurement circuit parasitic inductance and measurement probes deskew in conventional device characterisation method by triangle current mode. Proposed measurement circuit and measurement method is then validated by first characterising a SiC-MOSFET with constant RDSon. Then, the comparison on GaN-HEMT dynamic RDSon measurement results demonstrates the improved accuracy of proposed trapezoidal current mode over conventional triangle current mode when device switches at 1MHz

Impact of Gamma Radiation on Dynamic RDSON Characteristics in AlGaN/GaN Power HEMTs

GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) are promising next-generation devices in the power electronics field which can coexist with silicon semiconductors, mainly in some radiation-intensive environments, such as power space converters, where high frequencies and voltages are also needed. Its wide band gap (WBG), large breakdown electric field, and thermal stability improve actual silicon performances. However, at the moment, GaN HEMT technology suffers from some reliability issues, one of the more relevant of which is the dynamic on-state resistance (RON_dyn) regarding power switching converter applications. In this study, we focused on the drain-to-source on-resistance (RDSON) characteristics under 60Co gamma radiation of two different commercial power GaN HEMT structures. Different bias conditions were applied to both structures during irradiation and some static measurements, such as threshold voltage and leakage currents, were performed. Additionally, dynamic resistance was measured to obtain practical information about device trapping under radiation during switching mode, and how trapping in the device is affected by gamma radiation. The experimental results showed a high dependence on the HEMT structure and the bias condition applied during irradiation. Specifically, a free current collapse structure showed great stability until 3.7 Mrad(Si), unlike the other structure tested, which showed high degradation of the parameters measured. The changes were demonstrated to be due to trapping effects generated or enhanced by gamma radiation. These new results obtained about RON_dyn will help elucidate trap behaviors in switching transistors

SiC/GaN power semiconductor devices: a theoretical comparison and experimental evaluation under different switching conditions

The conduction and switching losses of SiC and GaN power transistors are compared in this paper. Voltage rating of commercial GaN power transistors is less than 650V while that of SiC power transistors is less than 1200V. The paper begins with a theoretical analysis that examines how the characteristics of a 1200V SiC-MOSFET change if device design is re-optimised for 600V blocking voltage. Afterwards, a range of commercial devices (1200V SiC-JFET, 1200V SiC-MOSFET, 650V SiC-MOSFET and 650V GaN-HEMT) with the same current rating are characterised experimentally and their conduction losses, inter-electrode capacitances and switching energy Esw are compared, where it is shown that GaN-HEMT has smaller ON-state resistance, inter-electrode capacitance values and Esw than SiC devices. Finally, in order to reduce device Esw, a zero voltage switching circuit is used to evaluate all the devices, where device only produces turn-OFF switching losses and it is shown that GaN-HEMT has less switching losses than SiC device in this soft switching mode. It is also shown in the paper that 1200V SiC-MOSFET has smaller conduction and switching losses than 650V SiC-MOSFET

MMC with parallel-connected MOSFETs as an alternative to wide bandgap converters for LVDC distribution networks

LVDC networks offer improved conductor utilisation on existing infrastructure and reduced conversion stages, which can lead to a simpler and more efficient distribution network. However, LVDC networks must continue to support AC loads, requiring efficient, low distortion DC-AC converters. In addition, there are increasing numbers of DC loads on the LVAC network requiring controlled, low distortion, unity power factor AC-DC converters with increasing capacity, and bi-directional capability. An efficient AC-DC/DC-AC converter design is therefore proposed in this paper to minimise conversion loss and maximise power quality. A comparative analysis is carried out for a conventional IGBT 2-level converter, a SiC MOSFET 2-level converter, a Si MOSFET MMC and a GaN HEMT MMC, in terms of power loss, reliability, fault tolerance, converter cost, and heatsink size. The analysis indicates that the 5-level MMC with parallel-connected Si MOSFETs is an efficient, cost effective converter for LV converter applications. MMC converters suffer negligible switching loss, which enables reduced device switching without loss penalty from increased harmonics and filtering. Optimal extent of parallel connection for MOSFETs in an MMC is investigated. Experimental results are presented for current sharing in parallel-connected MOSFETs, showing reduction in device stress and EMI generating transients through the use of reduced switching

Single-phase T-type inverter performance benchmark using Si IGBTs, SiC MOSFETs and GaN HEMTs

In this paper, benchmark of Si IGBT, SiC MOSFET and GaN HEMT power switches at 600V class is conducted in single-phase T-type inverter. Gate driver requirements, switching performance, inverter efficiency performance, heat sink volume, output filter volume and dead-time effect for each technology is evaluated. Gate driver study shows that GaN has the lowest gate driver losses above 100kHz and below 100kHz, SiC has lowest gate losses. GaN has the best switching performance among three technologies that allows high efficiency at high frequency applications. GaN based inverter operated at 160kHz switching frequency with 97.3% efficiency at 2.5kW output power. Performance of three device technologies at different temperature, switching frequency and load conditions shows that heat sink volume of the converter can be reduced by 2.5 times by switching from Si to GaN solution at 60°C case temperature, and for SiC and GaN, heat sink volume can be reduced by 2.36 and 4.92 times respectively by increasing heat sink temperature to 100°C. Output filter volume can be reduced by 43% with 24W, 26W and 61W increase in device power loss for GaN, SiC and Si based converters respectively. WBG devices allow reduction of harmonic distortion at output current from 3.5% to 1.5% at 100kHz

Reliability-driven assessment of GaN HEMTs and Si IGBTs in 3L-ANPC PV inverters

In this paper, thermal loading of the state-of-the-art GaN HEMTs and traditional Si IGBTs in 3L-ANPC PV inverters is presented considering real-field long-term mission profiles (i.e., ambient temperature and solar irradiance). A comparison of Si IGBT against GaN HEMT with three different possibilities: 1) with TIM at 10 kHz, 2) without TIM at 10 kHz, and 3) with TIM at 300 kHz has been performed. The assessment results indicate lower thermal stress with GaN HEMT devices at 10 kHz in comparison to Si IGBT. At high switching frequencies, the results show significant system level cost savings can be achieved without compromise of operating efficiency with GaN HEMTs. Both simulations and experimental tests are provided to demonstrate the thermal loading analysis approach. More important, the proposed analysis and comparison approach can be used for lifetime and reliability analysis of wide-bandgap devices

SiC/GaN power semiconductor devices theoretical comparison and experimental evaluation

SiC and GaN power transistors conduction loss and switching losses are compared in this paper. In order to compare performance of the same power rating device, a theoretical analysis is given to compare SiC device conduction loss and switching losses change when device maximal blocking voltage reduces by half. Then static and dynamic characteristics of commercial SiC and GaN power transistors are compared and it is shown that GaN-HEMT would still have smaller ON-state resistance and inter-electrode capacitance in comparison with a 600V SiC device. After that, switching losses E8w of a GaN-HEMT is measured and compared with that of a 1200V SiC-JFET and a 600V SiC-MOSFET, in which it is shown that E8w of a GaN-HEMT is smaller than a SiC power transistor with the same power rating