Modern civilization is related to the increased use of electric energy for industry production, human mobility, and comfortable living. Highly efficient and reliable power electronic systems, which convert and process electric energy from one form to the other, are critical for smart grid and renewable energy systems. The power semiconductor device, as the cornerstone technology in a power electronics system, plays a pivotal role in determining the system efficiency, size, and cost. Starting from the invention and commercialization of silicon bipolar junction transistor 60 years ago, a whole array of silicon power semiconductor devices have been developed and commercialized. These devices enable power electronics systems to reach ultrahigh efficiency and high-power capacity needed for various smart grid and renewable energy system applications such as photovoltaic (PV), wind, energy storage, electric vehicle (EV), flexible ac transmission system (FACTS), and high voltage dc (HVDC) transmission. In the last two decades, newer generations of power semiconductor devices based on wide bandgap (WBG) materials, such as SiC and GaN, were developed and commercialized further pushing the boundary of power semiconductor devices to higher voltages, higher frequencies, and higher temperatures. This paper reviews some of the major power semiconductor devices technologies and their potential impacts and roadmaps.

Power Semiconductor Devices for Smart Grid and Renewable Energy Systems

In order to apply power electronics systems to applications such as superconducting systems under cryogenic temperatures, it is necessary to investigate the characteristics of different parts in the power electronics system. This article reviews the influence of cryogenic temperature on power semiconductor devices including Si and wide bandgap switches, integrated circuits, passive components, interconnection and dielectric materials, and some typical cryogenic converter systems. Also, the basic theories and principles are given to explain the trends for different aspects of cryogenically cooled converters. Based on the review, Si active power devices, bulk Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) based integrated circuits, nanocrystalline and amorphous magnetic cores, NP0 ceramic and film capacitors, thin/metal film and wirewound resistors are the components suitable for cryogenic operation. Pb-rich PbSn solder or In solder, classic printed circuit boards material, most insulation papers and epoxy encapsulant are good interconnection and dielectric parts for cryogenic temperatures.

Review of Power Electronics Components at Cryogenic Temperatures

This chapter intends to provide a comprehensive and comparative discussion of various important power device technologies which are critical for industrial, smart grid and renewable energy applications. A power semiconductor switch is a three‐terminal device that can either conduct a current when it is commanded ON, or block a voltage when it is commanded OFF through the control terminal. Modern power converters require the power device to switch at high frequencies. A modern power semiconductor device operates between ON and OFF states at a high switching frequency. One way to compare state‐of‐the‐art power devices, especially their commercial readiness, is to compare their absolute voltage and current ratings. The chapter reviews several important innovations in Si power devices. The most exciting development in power semiconductor devices in the last decade is the commercialization of a number of wide bandgap power devices.

Power semiconductor devices for smart grid and renewable energy systems

To better support the superconducting propulsion system in the future aircraft applications, the technologies of high-power high switching frequency power electronics systems at cryogenic temperatures should be investigated. This article presents the development of a 40-kW cryogenically cooled three-level active neutral point clamped inverter with 3 kHz output line frequency and 140 kHz switching frequency. Si mosfet s are characterized at cryogenic temperatures, and the results show that they have promising performance such as lower on -resistance and switching loss. The design of the inverter is presented in detail with the special consideration of the cryogenic temperature operation. Moreover, a packaging and integration architecture is designed and fabricated to demonstrate the feasibility and performance of the inverter in the lab. It is able to achieve no leakage with good thermal and air insulation. With the inverter and packaging, the experimental results show that the inverter operates properly at cryogenic temperatures. The loss is measured at different load conditions, and the loss analysis is given, which shows that the cryogenically cooled inverter has 30% less loss than operating at room temperature.

Development of High-Power High Switching Frequency Cryogenically Cooled Inverter for Aircraft Applications

Due to the superior material properties, SiC mosfet is a promising candidate switching device for high power density and high efficiency power conversion system. The robustness of switching device under extreme temperature condition becomes a crucial factor to ensure power conversion system safely and continuously operating. In this paper, the temperature dependence of dynamic performance of 1.2-kV 4H-SiC power mosfet s is systematically characterized over such wide temperature range of 90–493 K and compared with 1.2-kV Si IGBT by a layout optimized double pulse tester (DPT). The degradation of dynamic on -resistance related interface traps is analyzed specially and the energy loss caused by degradation is quantified at cryogenic temperatures. Besides, to validate the performance of SiC mosfet under safely and continuously operating conditions for cryogenic temperature application, a hard switched non-isolated dc–dc buck converter is designed and tested to estimate temperature dependence of conversion efficiency under temperature range of 90–290 K. Moreover, the further characterizations are conducted with gate resistance range of 2–20 Ω, load current range of 3–30 A, and converter output current of 5–22.5 A under different switching frequency (up to 150 kHz) to validate high power and high frequency application potential of SiC mosfet .

Temperature Dependence of Dynamic Performance Characterization of 1.2-kV SiC Power mosfets Compared With Si IGBTs for Wide Temperature Applications

In this paper, an optimized structure of 4H-SiC U-shaped trench gate MOSFET (UMOSFET) with low resistance is proposed. The optimized structure adds an n-type region, wrapping the p+ shielding region incorporated at the bottom of the trench gate. The depletion region formed by the p+ shielding region reduces greatly for the high dopant concentration of the added region. This added region also conducts electrons downward and expands the electrons to the bottom of the p+ shielding region. We discussed the influence of dopant concentration and the width of the added region on the breakdown voltage (BV) and the ON-resistance in this paper. A reasonable size and an optimized concentration were chosen for the added region in our simulation. The channel inversion layer mobility was set to 50 cm $^{2}$ /Vs, and the specific ON-resistance and the BV were 1.64 $\text{m}\Omega \cdot {\rm cm}^{2}$ ( $V_{\mathrm {GS}}= 15$ V, $V_{\mathrm {DS}}= 1$ V, and no substrate resistance was included) and 891 V, respectively, using the numerical simulation.

An Optimized Structure of 4H-SiC U-Shaped Trench Gate MOSFET

In this paper, an improved 4H-SiC U-shaped trench-gate metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (UMOSFETs) structure with low ON-resistance ( ${R}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$ ) and switching energy loss is proposed. The novel structure features an added n-type region, which reduces ON-resistance of the device significantly while maintaining the breakdown voltage ( ${V}_{\textsf {BR}}$ ). In addition, the gate of the improved structure is designed as a p-n junction to reduce the switching energy loss. Simulations by Sentaurus TCAD are carried out to reveal the working mechanism of this improved structure. For the static performance, the ON-resistance and the figure of merit (FOM $= {V}_{\textsf {BR}}^{\textsf {2}}/{R}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$ ) of the optimized structure are improved by 40% and 44%, respectively, as compared to a conventional trench MOSFET without the added n-type region and modified gate. For the dynamic performance, the turn-on time ( ${T}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$ ) and turn-off time ( ${T}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle OFF}}$ ) of the proposed structure are both shorter than that of the conventional structure, bringing a 43% and 30% reduction in turn-on energy loss and total switching energy loss ( ${E}_{\mathbf {SW}}$ ).

An Improved 4H-SiC Trench-Gate MOSFET With Low ON-Resistance and Switching Loss

In this letter, an improved 4H–SiC step trench-gate power metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) with a p-n junction in the trench is proposed. The step trench significantly reduces the ON-resistance of the device. And the p-n junction in the trench reduces the gate charge. Compared with the conventional p+ shielding trench MOSFET structure, simulation results show that the specific ON-resistance and gate charge of the proposed device are improved by 26.4% and 34.7%, respectively. A 43.4% improvement in the figure of merit (including the breakdown voltage and ON-resistance) is also observed.

4H–SiC Step Trench Gate Power Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor

In this article, the static, dynamic, and short-circuit properties of 1.2-kV commercial 4H-SiC planar and trench gate metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) are compared and analyzed in a wide temperature range from 90 to 493 K. The temperature-dependent specific ON-resistance ( ${R}_{\text {sp}- \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$ ) and threshold voltage ( ${V}_{\text {th}}$ ) are analyzed in relation to the density of the interface state. The turn-on rise and turn-off fall times ( ${T}_{r}$ and ${T}_{f}$ ) and the corresponding energy loss ( ${E}_{r}$ and ${E}_{f}$ ) are extracted from a double-pulse test from cryogenic to high temperature and analyzed. The short-circuit capability of the two structures is studied at low temperature for the first time. The comprehensive comparison and analysis of the planar and trench gate MOSFET versus temperature in this work show the importance to study applications with SiC MOSFETs in a wide temperature range, especially for the cryogenic temperatures.

Kai Tian

Papers

Temperature Dependence of Dynamic Performance Characterization of 1.2-kV SiC Power mosfets Compared With Si IGBTs for Wide Temperature Applications

An Optimized Structure of 4H-SiC U-Shaped Trench Gate MOSFET

An Improved 4H-SiC Trench-Gate MOSFET With Low ON-Resistance and Switching Loss

4H–SiC Step Trench Gate Power Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor

Comprehensive Characterization of the 4H-SiC Planar and Trench Gate MOSFETs From Cryogenic to High Temperature