Wide-pulse evaluation of 0.5 cm2 silicon carbide SGTO

Silicon carbide Super-GTOs are being pursued by the Army as a replacement for current silicon-based, high-power pulse switches. In this study, 0.5 cm² silicon carbide SGTOs were evaluated in an RLC pulse circuit which provided a half-sine shaped pulse at a width of 1 ms. The parameters assessed were peak current capability, 1000-shot reliability, and current sharing between parallel switches. SGTOs were pulsed as high as 1600 A, but 1250 A was found to be the most reliable and repeatable current level for most devices. This current waveform corresponds to an action of 850 A²s and a current density over the emitter area of 3.5 kA/cm². SGTOs were pulsed for over 1000 single shots without any significant change in forward voltage drop. A pair of parallel SGTOs was pulsed up to a total of 2600 A, and repeatedly at 2500 A, with current sharing within ± 1%. This paper details the evaluations of individual and paralleled devices which are being studied in preparation for future work with multi-chip modules.