Fast Wide-bandgap Device Overcurrent Protection with Direct Current Measurement

A fast and reliable overcurrent protection scheme is crucial for the converter reliability. It is also critical for double pulse test stations where newer devices or even engineering samples are tested, and device failures can be costly. A fast overcurrent protection scheme using the direct current measurement in the double pulse test is demonstrated and 7.55 ns fault response delay time is achieved. The total fault clearing time is determined by the fault signal propagation and device switching speed. Around 100 ns and 60 ns fault clearing time is achieved for SiC and GaN devices, respectively. The much faster protection can potentially simplify the gate driver design and reduce the energy rating of the coaxial shunt resistor. Since the overcurrent detection is directly attached to the current measurement, its impact on the measurement bandwidth is also discussed.