The modeling and characterization of Silicon carbide gate turn off thyristors

Over the past decade Silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductor devices have shown great promise for next generation power electronic applications. New intelligent systems that will require advanced power electronic circuitry range from electric vehicles to smart grid interfaces. Several devices have been developed for use in these power electronic circuits including diodes, MOSFETs, JFETs, thyristors, gate turn-off thyristors, and IGBTs. The model development, characterization and experimental validation of a SiC p-type Gate Turn-off Thyristor (GTO) is presented in this paper. The developed model is a level-3 physics-based model that predicts on-state and switching behavior with high accuracy. The model also incorporates temperature effects, and accurately predicts device performances from 25 °C to +175 °C. Test configurations were designed to accurately characterize and test an 8 kV ptype SiC GTO provided by Cree. The measured data was used to validate the model's performance.