Performance Evaluation of 650 V SiC MOSFET Under Low Temperature Operation

Cryogenic power conversion offers advantages of high efficiency and high power density, which is regarded as the next step for power electronics in specific applications, like all-electric military vehicles and deep space probes. As the key component in power electronics system, the performance of the semiconductor should be evaluated under cryogenic temperature. In this article, the static and dynamic characterizations of the 650V silicon carbide (SiC) trench-structure MOSFET from ROHM are presented. The results shown that: 1) the device on-state resistance is about two and half times larger than the room-temperature value; 2) the threshold voltage increases with the decrease of temperature due to the increased carrier mobility; 3) the turn-off time is reduced under low temperatures, while the turn-on time is slightly increased; 4) the switching loss is slightly increased due to the increased turn-on time of the device; 4) some other findings on gate driver and measurement setup are presented. Guidance can be provided for the evaluation of power device under low temperature operation.