IEEE Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications in Asia (WiPDA Asia 2018)

280 / 2017-12-06 16:57:05

Comparative Study of Power Semiconductor Reliability in Hybrid DC Circuit Breaker: SiC MOSFET versus Si IGBT

DC circuit breaker,Power Semiconductor Reliability,Condition Monitoring,Junction Temperature,Sillicon Carbide

Plenary track > Harsh environment (e.g. high temperature) operation and reliability

This paper focuses on the reliability consideration and condition assessment of the power semiconductor devices in hybrid circuit breaker (HCB) topology. Specific attention is given to the comparative analysis of applying SiC MOSFET and Si IGBT as the main semiconductor switch. First, transient characteristics discrepancies of two devices and their influences on the reliability issues of a HCB are studied in detail by breaking experiments. Then, the peak junction temperature that occurs at the turn-OFF stage is proposed as the indicator of HCB condition. A temperature-based technique using both static and dynamic thermo-sensitive electrical parameters (TSEPs) are employed to measure the maximum temperature. Correlation between junction temperature and TSEPs are calibrated and sensitivities of the calibration curves are compared between SiC MOSFET and Si IGBT. Finally, the implementation issues of online estimation via the method are discussed. In conclusion, applying SiC MOSFET to HCB faces more serious reliability issues at the present stage. Condition monitoring of power semiconductor devices by the proposed technique is promising but challenging, especially for SiC MOSFET.