Abstract
Limitations of silicon (Si) based power electronic
devices can be overcome with Silicon Carbide (SiC) because of
its remarkable material properties. SiC is a wide bandgap
semiconductor material with larger bandgap, lower leakage
currents, higher breakdown electric field, and higher thermal
conductivity, which promotes higher switching frequencies for
high power applications, higher temperature operation, and
results in higher power density devices relative to Si [1]. The
proposed work is focused on design of a SiC gate driver to drive
a SiC power MOSFET, on a Cree SiC process, with rise/fall
times (less than 100 ns) suitable for 500 kHz to 1 MHz switching
frequency applications. A process optimized gate driver
topology design which is significantly different from generic Si
circuit design is proposed. The ultimate goal of the project is to
integrate this gate driver into a Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid
electric vehicle (PHEV) charger module. The application of this
high frequency charger will result in lighter, smaller, cheaper,
and a more efficient power electronics system.
