Title :
A simple high-performance low-loss current-source driver for SiC bipolar transistors
Author :
Rabkowski, Jacek ; Peftitsis, Dimosthenis ; Nee, Hans-Peter ; Zdanowski, Mariusz
Author_Institution :
Electrical Energy Conversion (E2C) Laboratory, School of Electrical Engineering,, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
Abstract :
The paper proposes a novel topology of a simple base drive unit for silicon carbide bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) based on the current-source principle. Energy stored in a small, air-cored inductor is employed to generate a current peak forcing the BJT to turn-on (10–20ns) very rapidly. The driver enables very high switching performance and very low switching losses of the driven BJT. Both the current source and the unit delivering the steady-state current to the base are supplied from the same low-voltage source in order to limit power consumption. Operation principles as well as selected design issues are discussed in the paper and illustrated by experiments. The 1200V/6A SiC BJT driven by the proposed circuit shows a very fast switching speed.
Keywords :
Capacitors; Current measurement; Inductors; Silicon carbide; Steady-state; Switches; Transistors; Silicon carbide; base drive unit; bipolar transistor; current source;
Conference_Titel :
Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference (IPEMC), 2012 7th International
Conference_Location :
Harbin, China
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4577-2085-7
DOI :
10.1109/IPEMC.2012.6258834