Static and Dynamic Performance of Charge-Carrier Lifetime-Tailored High-Voltage SiC p-i-n Diodes With Capacitively Assisted Switching

Recent advancements in the silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductor technology offer improvements for high-power converters, where today silicon (Si) devices are still dominant. Bipolar SiC devices feature particularly good conduction capability while blocking high voltages. With expected advances in SiC material quality and processing technology, resulting in higher charge carrier lifetimes, methods for tailoring will be required. In this article, three differently optimized 10-kV SiC p-i-n diodes are compared regarding their switching and conduction performance in a 50-kHz LCC converter with a high output voltage. The converter topology features capacitively assisted switching, resulting in reduced switching losses for diodes with short reverse recovery tails. One diode group was subjected to a novel carrier lifetime tailoring method, involving simultaneous annihilation and generation of carbon vacancies. Another group was tailored via proton irradiation. Tradeoffs for the optimization of the diodes are highlighted. The analysis is supported by circuit simulations, device simulations, static measurements, switching waveform measurements, and calorimetric loss measurements. The results show a total rectifier loss reduction of 37%, compared to a state-of-the-art implementation with eight 1-kV Si diodes. The switching losses account for 3%–19% of the total losses, indicating a much higher possible operation frequency.