Open AccessA Novel Circuit for Characteristics Measurement of SiC Transistors
Author(s) -
Guoen Cao,
HeeJun Kim
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of electrical engineering and technology/journal of electrical engineering and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.226
H-Index - 27
eISSN - 2093-7423
pISSN - 1975-0102
DOI - 10.5370/jeet.2014.9.4.1332
Subject(s) - transistor , clamper , discrete circuit , electronic circuit , electronic engineering , rl circuit , reliability (semiconductor) , voltage , circuit extraction , electrical engineering , circuit design , equivalent circuit , computer science , engineering , constant power circuit , power (physics) , physics , power factor , quantum mechanics
This paper proposes a novel test circuit for SiC transistors. On-state resistance under practical application conditions is an important characteristic for the device reliability and conduction efficiency of SiC transistors. In order to measure the on-state resistance in practical applications, high voltage is needed, and high current is also necessary to ignite performance for the devices. A soft- switching circuit based on synchronous buck topology is developed in this paper. To provide high- voltage and high-current stresses for the devices without additional spikes and oscillations, a resonant circuit has been introduced. Using the novel circuit technology, soft-switching can be successfully realized for all the switches. Furthermore, in order to achieve accurate measurement of on-state resistance under switching operations, an active clamp circuit is employed. Operation principle and design analysis of the circuit are discussed. The dynamic measurement method is illustrated in detail. Simulation and experiments were carried out to verify the feasibility of the circuit. A special test circuit has been developed and built. Experimental results confirm that the proposed circuit gives a good insight of the devices performance in real applications.