An experimentally validated electro-thermal compact model for 4H-SiC power diodes

The implementation of a circuit-oriented model for high-current, high-voltage 4H-SiC power diodes is presented. The compact modeling technique used presents a good trade-off between accuracy and speed for modeling of bipolar power devices, and a high flexibility for inclusion of various physical models. Implementation in the SABER circuit simulator of the model is performed using the MAST hardware description language (HDL). Up-to-date physical models for 4H-SiC semiconductor materials including thermal dependence, which are relevant for the device switching behavior are evaluated and implemented in the compact model. Simulation results using the proposed model are compared to both measurements and device simulations on 2.5 kV, 400 A Si-IGBT/4H-SiC diode modules from ABB at various circuit and temperature conditions. The model has proven to be a valuable simulation tool for investigation of future power circuit designs based on SiC technology