SiC power-switching devices-the second electronics revolution?

Author

Cooper, James A., Jr. ; Agarwal, Anant

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN, USA

Volume

90

Issue

6

fYear

2002

fDate

6/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

956

Lastpage

968

Abstract

Silicon carbide (SiC) offers significant advantages for power-switching devices because the critical field for avalanche breakdown is about ten times higher than in silicon. SiC power devices have made remarkable progress in the past five years, demonstrating currents in excess of 100 A and blocking voltages in excess of 19000 V. In this paper we describe the latest progress in three classes of SiC devices: diodes (p-i-n and Schottky), transistors (junction field-effect transistor, metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor, and bipolar junction transistor), and thyristors (gate turn-off).

Keywords

Schottky diodes; junction gate field effect transistors; p-i-n diodes; power MOSFET; power bipolar transistors; power field effect transistors; power semiconductor diodes; power semiconductor switches; silicon compounds; thyristors; wide band gap semiconductors; 100 A; 19000 V; Schottky diodes; SiC power-switching devices; avalanche breakdown critical field; bipolar junction transistor; blocking voltages; currents; gate turn-off thyristors; junction field-effect transistor; metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor; p-i-n diodes; Avalanche breakdown; FETs; MOSFETs; Prototypes; Schottky diodes; Semiconductor diodes; Semiconductor materials; Silicon carbide; Temperature; Thyristors;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Proceedings of the IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9219

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JPROC.2002.1021561

Filename

1021561