Impacts of package, layout and freewheeling diode on switching characteristics of Super Junction MOSFET in automotive DC-DC applications

The aim of this paper is to evaluate experimentally the switching characteristics of discrete high voltage Super-Junction (SJ) MOSFET in the 650VDSS voltage class with respect to device package. The switching performance of the SJ MOSFET is evaluated in four different SMD packages, of which two with Kelvin source, each with respect to a soft recovery freewheeling diode, its own intrinsic body diode as freewheeling diode in half bridge configuration and with the latest generation Silicon Carbide (SiC) Schottky diode. The need for overall low inductance hardware design to attain better switching performance of the device is discussed. The influence of parasitic inductance, impacts of reverse recovery behavior of Si and SiC diodes on switching power device's turn-on, di/dt and dV/dt effects are also addressed. The merits of SiC diode, leadless package and Kelvin source on switching performance are demonstrated. Finally, suitable packages and freewheeling diode combination are identified for automotive applications like DC-DC converters and Power Factor Correction (PFC).