A Novel Short-Circuit Protection Scheme for Silicon Carbide (SiC) MOSFET Module Considering Operation Temperature
Yang Wen, Yuan Yang, Yan Li
Abstract
Featuring higher switching speed and lower losses, the silicon carbide (SiC) <sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">mosfet</small>s are widely used in high power density and higher efficiency power electronic applications as a new solution. However, the limited and temperature-dependent short-circuit (SC) capability is the key obstacles to its wide application. In this article, a novel short circuit protection (SCP) based on power evaluation method (PEM) considering operation temperature for SiC <sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">mosfet</small> module is presented to address the aforementioned obstacles. The principle of the PEM is based on power evaluation of SiC <sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">mosfet</small> and dynamically adjusting the protection threshold according to the operation temperature since overheating is the main cause of the device's SC failure. Finally, the performance of the PEM was experimentally verified on a 1.2 kV/120 A SiC <sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">mosfet</small> in an SC test. The results show that the PEM features better response time and peak current performance both in hard switching fault and fault under load conditions compared to traditional desaturation and improved <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">di/dt</i> methods.