SiC JFET in Contrast to High Speed Si IGBT in Matrix Converter Topology

The retrograde efforts in the field of silicon carbide (SiC) technology led to outstanding device parameters of high voltage unipolar devices. Overcoming silicon (Si) unipolar limits in SiC, currently the vertical JFET is the most serious active switch which seems to outperform all the established technology. With exemplaryly 48 Wan'3 the matrix converter is predicted to reach highest power densities in future using SiC devices [1][2]. But on the silicon side, 1200 V field-stop IGBTs with planar gate structure enabling operating frequencies in hard switching applications up to 100 kHz, too [3]. In this paper the conduction and switching behaviour of both transistor types is analyzed with respect to the matrix converter demands. The combination of measured data and a particular simulation gives results in terms of power losses and efficiency.