Silicon carbide merged PiN Schottky diode switching characteristics and evaluation for power supply applications

Author

Hefner, A., Jr. ; Berning, D. ; Lai, J.S. ; Liu, C. ; Singh, R.

Author_Institution

Center for Power Electron. Syst., Virginia Polytech. Inst. & State Univ., Blacksburg, VA, USA

Volume

5

fYear

2000

fDate

2000

Firstpage

2948

Abstract

A newly developed silicon carbide (SiC) merged PiN Schottky (MPS) diode combines the best features of both Schottky and PiN diodes to obtain low on-state voltage drop, low leakage in the off-state, fast switching, and good high temperature characteristics. In this paper, the switching characteristics of 1500 V, 0.5 A rated SiC MPS diodes are evaluated and compared to the fastest, similarly rated silicon diodes available. Experimental results indicate that the reverse recovery time and associated losses are nearly zero for the SiC MPS diodes. By replacing the best silicon diodes available with a SiC MPS diode, the efficiency of a test-case power supply was found to increase from 89% to 91.5% for switching at 100 kHz, and from 82 % to 88% at 186 kHz. A significant electromagnetic interference (EMI) reduction was also obtained with the SiC MPS diodes compared to the silicon diodes for the noise spectrum range from 70 MHz to 150 MHz

Keywords

Schottky diodes; electromagnetic interference; interference suppression; p-i-n diodes; power supplies to apparatus; semiconductor materials; silicon compounds; switching; 0.5 A; 100 kHz; 1500 V; 186 kHz; 70 to 150 MHz; 82 to 91.5 percent; EMI reduction; SiC; SiC merged PiN Schottky diode; efficiency; electromagnetic interference reduction; fast switching; losses; low leakage; low on-state voltage drop; power supply; reverse recovery time; silicon carbide merged PiN Schottky diode; switching characteristics; Breakdown voltage; Doping; Electric breakdown; Low voltage; NIST; Power supplies; Schottky diodes; Semiconductor diodes; Silicon carbide; Temperature;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Industry Applications Conference, 2000. Conference Record of the 2000 IEEE

Conference_Location

Rome

ISSN

0197-2618

Print_ISBN

0-7803-6401-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IAS.2000.882585

Filename

882585