Review on SiC-MOSFET Devices and Associated Gate Drivers

Silicon (Si) power devices have dominated the world of Power Electronics in the last years, and they have proven to be efficient in a wide range of applications. But high power, high frequency and high temperature applications require more than Si can deliver. Wide Band-Gap (WBG) materials such as Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) were intensively researched and developed for power applications due to the substantial advantages their inherent material properties could realize at device level. The SiC-MOSFET has unique capabilities that make it a superior switch when compared to its silicon counterparts. By nature of its material advantages, SiC MOSFETs provide lower switching loss, lower ON-resistance across its operating temperature range, and superior thermal properties. However the characteristics of SiC devices require consideration of the gate-driver circuit to optimize the switching performance. SiC-MOSFETs, due to their ultra fast switching speed, are susceptible to have harsh transients introduced by rapid change in the drain-to-source voltage. Therefore, the gate drive requirements of SiC-MOSFETs require a thorough analysis in order to prevent high dv/dt transients from causing erratic switching behavior or unnecessary switching loss. This paper provides a general review on the properties of SiC comparing some performances between Si-MOSFETs and SiC-MOSFETs for typical power electronics applications. The main constraints and issues of the SiC-MOSFET switching process are presented, and some recent proposed Gate Drivers to solve these constraints are presented throughout this work.