7.5 kV 4H-SiC GTO's for power conversion

There is a growing demand for medium voltage, 6.5-24 kV, switches capable of operating at more than 15 kHz frequencies. The range of potential applications includes grid-tied solar inverters and pulsed-power applications, where the conventional silicon thyristor technology is plagued with slow switching speeds at medium blocking voltage requirements. In this paper we present the design and characterization of 7.5 kV 4H-SiC Gate-Turn-Off thyristors (GTO's) with multiple floating guard-ring edge termination, and present GTO switching performance at 10 kHz in an AC-link™ [1] inverter.