Static and Dynamic Performance Prediction of Ultrahigh-Voltage Silicon Carbide Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistors

The performance of theoretical ultrahigh-voltage power semiconductor devices has been predicted by means of numerical simulations using the Sentaurus technology computer-aided design tool. A general silicon carbide punch-through insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) structure has been implemented with suitable physics-based models and parameters to reflect the device characteristics in a wide range of device blocking voltages from 20 to 50 kV. The models for 20 kV class IGBTs have been implicitly validated by means of published experimental results. Mixed-mode simulations were performed that predicted total switching energy loss densities of 335, 629, 906, and 999 mJ/cm(2) for 20, 30, 40, and 50 kV class devices, respectively, at 25 degrees C, J(C) = 20 A/cm(2), and an ambipolar carrier lifetime of 20 mu s. While the IGBT on-state forward voltage drop reduces, the switching losses increase with higher charge-carrier lifetime for a given current density (e.g., 20 A/cm(2)). The large span of simulation results will be used as an input support to the design of future high-power converters.