Power Devices Comparison in Synchronous Half Bridge Topology

The aim of this paper is to investigate the efficiency improvement obtained by using wide band-gap semiconductors instead of the traditional silicon power devices in synchronous half bridge topology application. WBG technology has been focused in order to show the peculiar characteristics and most important differences between SiC and GaN and their optimal use in different types of applications. In order to evaluate the efficiency at different power levels and switching frequencies, those devices have been tested using two different experimental boards both operated in hard switching and implementing, respectively, the synchronous half bridge topology Buck and Boost converters. Finally, the impact of the device's performance on the total converter losses has been calculated, also addressing the impact of conduction or switching losses.