Thermal Stability of Silicon Carbide Power Diodes

Author

Buttay, Cyril ; Raynaud, Christophe ; Morel, Hervé ; Civrac, Gabriel ; Locatelli, Marie-Laure ; Morel, Florent

Author_Institution

Lab. Ampere, Inst. Nat. des Sci. Appl. de Lyon (INSA Lyon), Villeurbanne, France

Volume

59

Issue

3

fYear

2012

fDate

3/1/2012 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

761

Lastpage

769

Abstract

Silicon carbide (SiC) power devices can operate at much higher junction temperature than those made of silicon. However, this does not mean that SiC devices can operate without a good cooling system. To demonstrate this, the model of a merged p-i-n Schottky (MPS) SiC diode is presented, and its parameters are identified with experimental measurements. This model is then used to study the ruggedness of the diode regarding the thermal runaway phenomenon. Finally, it is shown that, where a purely unipolar diode would be unstable, the MPS structure brings increased stability.

Keywords

Schottky diodes; p-i-n diodes; power semiconductor diodes; semiconductor device measurement; semiconductor device models; silicon compounds; thermal stability; wide band gap semiconductors; MPS structure; SiC; cooling system; junction temperature; p-i-n Schottky-SiC diode; silicon carbide power diodes; thermal runaway phenomenon; thermal stability; Cooling; Junctions; P-i-n diodes; Schottky diodes; Silicon carbide; Temperature measurement; Thermal stability; High-temperature techniques; Schottky diodes; p-i-n diodes; power electronics; silicon carbide (SiC);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TED.2011.2181390

Filename

6135781