High-Speed Medium-Voltage SiC Thyristors for Pulsed Power Applications

The high peak current withstand capability of thyristors makes them extremely suitable for pulsed power applications. Silicon carbide (SiC) thyristors provide significant efficiency advantages compared with their silicon counterparts due to their very fast switching transitions. This article presents the development and characteristics of 3 kV SiC thyristors. A novel current-source gate driver is proposed to enhance their switching speed and, hence, maximize their benefits in pulsed power applications. The proposed driver provides a very high gate current slew rate while limiting the peak of the current pulse. The higher gate current slew rate achieves faster and, thus, more efficient device switching transition. Gate driver circuit description, variant topologies, and experimental results for a 3 kV SiC thyristor for a pulsed power application are presented to verify the proposed concepts.