POWER ELECTRONICS HANDBOOK
The try-before-you-buy route to energy eff icient power design XUNING ZHANG, LEVI GANT
LITTELFUSE, INC.
Evaluation platforms help pick SiC components in power conversion circuits. THE QUEST FOR greener energy production and consumption has put a premium on high-efficiency power circuitry. In that regard, many modern power supplies and converters operate at much higher voltages that allow use of lower currents to minimize I2R losses. Silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs and diodes are important elements of these new high-power, high-voltage power conversion circuits. SiC MOSFETs provide low on-resistance and can switch back and forth between on and off states rapidly. Consequently, they dissipate much less power than insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) which have slower turn-off speeds and higher turn-off switching power loss. In addition, silicon carbide’s wide bandgap enables SiC devices to operate at high voltages. In contrast, silicon-based MOSFETS can’t realize both high blocking voltages and low on-resistances. As a result, SiC devices are becoming integral in high-power applications. Because of the high power levels SiC devices deal with, designers must evaluate both the SiC devices themselves and their gate driver circuits. SiC technology is still relatively new, and device performance under a wide range of conditions is not fully characterized. An evaluation platform will enable design engineers to evaluate SiC MOSFETS, SiC Schottky diodes, and gate driver circuits under continuous operation in converter circuit applications. The evaluation platform will aid in accelerating design cycles for successful, SiCbased power converter design and assist in speeding the time-tomarket for the end product.
38
DESIGN WORLD — EE NETWORK
2 • 2020
The gate drive evaluation platform includes the motherboard, two plug-in gate driver modules, and the heatsink and fan to support up to 5 kW of output power.
eeworldonline.com
|
designworldonline.com
