High-Performance Driving of SiC MOSFETs to Implement Short-Time Operation for Inverter Circuits

As inverter circuits are applied to various applications, the required performance and expected lifetime of inverter circuits have varied. This study focuses on the relationship between the gate voltage of power metal-oxide-semiconductor–field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) and their performance and long-term reliability. By applying these features, it is proposed a high-performance driving method for power MOSFETs in inverter circuits intended for short-lifetime, high-performance applications. This paper theoretically shows the relationship between MOSFET performance and gate voltage. It also shows that both conduction loss and switching loss can be reduced by high-performance driving, in which the gate voltage of a MOSFET is set higher than its rating during short-time operation. Furthermore, by measuring the voltage–current and voltage–capacitance characteristics of MOSFETs, the degradation of MOSFETs during high-performance driving is discussed.