Gate impedance characterization and performance evaluation of 3.3kV Silicon Carbide MOSFETs

For the development of new wide bandgap high voltage semiconductors, it is necessary to carry out a thorough characterization of their behavior towards their future use in real applications. In this document a basic characterization of new 3.3 kV SiC MOSFET prototypes is presented, both static and dynamic. While the static characterization provides quite good figures of merit of the prototype under test, in the dynamic characterization, slow transitions are detected and they will be explained proposing a model for the configuration of the gate cell inner connections of the presented prototype.

I. Introduction

Wide bandgap semiconductors are becoming major competitors to silicon semiconductors in those applications in which power silicon devices show limited performance. In particular, silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs show many advantages over their predecessors as, for example, faster switching transitions, greater blocking capability or the possibility to work at higher temperature. However, technologies used in manufacturing processes still must be optimized in order to obtain competitive devices compared to their silicon analogues, which have reached a high level of development.