Soft switching characterization of 15 kV SiC n-IGBT and performance evaluation for high power converter applications

The 15 kV SiC IGBT with 2 μm and 5 μm field-stop buffer layer thicknesses are two state of the art HV SiC devices. These 15 kV SiC IGBTs generate high dv/dt with two slopes in punch through and non-punch through regions. To design 15 kV SiC IGBT with reduced dv/dt and single slope dv/dt similar to 10-15 kV SiC MOSFET, requires significantly larger drift epitaxial layer thickness and it increases the size and cost of the 15 kV SiC IGBT. This paper presents the zero voltage switching (ZVS) characteristics of 15 kV SiC N-IGBTs to reduce the dv/dt at switching pole along with reduction in the switching losses and increase in the switching frequency limits with external snubber capacitor. The ZVS characteristics are reported up to 9 kV dc bus voltage at 25°C and 150°C for both IGBTs. This paper also reports continuous mode experimental demonstration of zero voltage switching (ZVS) of 5 μm 15 kV IGBT in a medium voltage half bridge converter up to 7 kV dc bus voltage and calculation of power dissipation per IGBT module and its comparison of switching frequency limits with hard switching of half bridge converter.