Design and numerical characterization of a low voltage power MOSFET in 4H-SiC for photovoltaic applications

Higher efficiency in photovoltaic (PV) conversion calls for the use of small Maximum Power Point Trackers (MPPT) to be placed on board the PV modules. Such circuits require in turn power transistors with low energy losses, high switching speed and blocking voltages lower than 150 V. Thus, starting from a conventional 4H-SiC power MOSFET, a novel device for photovoltaic applications has been designed and numerically simulated in order to determine its on-state resistance (RON) for different device structures and bias voltages. The resulting value of RON is compared to that of a commercial Si-based MOSFET performing the same breakdown voltage.