7/31/24, 10:47 AM Understanding the Thermal Behavior of SiC - Technical Articles

Technical Article

Understanding the Thermal Behavior of SiC

July 18, 2024 by Chip Brakeville

One of SiC’s most important advantages in industrial designs is its ability to

perform well at elevated temperatures without excessive carrier leakage. To
maximize SiC's potential in designs that need high-temperature
compatibility, it is important to understand how devices respond under
conditions that impact performance and efficiency.
This article is published by EEPower as part of an exclusive digital content partnership with Bodo’s Power Systems.

Silicon carbide (SiC) has numerous advantages over traditional silicon process technologies in power electronics. It
combines higher electron mobility with a wider bandgap and better thermal conductivity. Thanks to these properties, SiC
devices exhibit lower on-state resistance (Rds(on)) compared to silicon devices of similar ratings. In addition to higher
carrier mobility, this lower resistance is assisted by the much higher breakdown field strength SiC offers over silicon. That
property enables a thinner drift layer in the device structure.

Perhaps SiC’s most important advantage for many industrial designs that other technologies cannot readily address is its
ability to perform well at elevated temperatures without excessive carrier leakage. A major contributor to this is SiC’s lower
intrinsic carrier concentration. However, to maximize the potential of SiC in designs that need high-temperature
compatibility, it is important to understand how devices respond under conditions that will impact performance and
efficiency.

SemiQ engineers have conducted extensive tests demonstrating MOSFETs’ behavior across the entire temperature range.
These tests provide important data points that indicate how to best exploit SiC’s thermal and electrical properties.

The tests carry through to manufacturing for the QSIC 1.2 kV SiC MOSFET modules, with all parts undergoing testing to
1.4 kV to ensure reliability. To guarantee stable gate threshold voltage and gate-oxide quality for each module, SemiQ
conducts gate burn-in testing at the wafer level. In addition to the burn-in test, various stress tests, including gate stress,
high-temperature reverse-bias (HTRB) drain stress, as well as the combined high humidity, high voltage, and high-
temperature stress test (H3TRB), are used to ensure parts are compliant with automotive and industrial quality standards.

In the company’s work characterizing SiC devices, SemiQ has shown how negative and positive temperature coefficients of
on-state resistance over the full operating temperature ranges can influence design decisions where maximum reliability is
needed. The company performed experiments on its 1.2 kV SiC MOSFET in a calibrated oven using the Keysight B1505A
Power Device Analyzer. To ensure the effects of ambient temperature were shown clearly, the experiments were conducted
only after sufficient time had elapsed after the oven was set to its target temperature for devices to heat or cool to the
correct level. During experiments, self-heating was mitigated using short pulse widths and low-duty cycles.

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Image used courtesy of Bodo’s Power Systems [PDF]

Experiments demonstrated that around room temperature, the RDS(on) of a SiC MOSFET reaches its minimum. Below this
temperature, resistance can increase dramatically depending on the applied gate-source voltage. Lower voltages increase
the temperature sensitivity, increasing the temperature at which the temperature coefficient shifts towards positive.

The negative temperature coefficient below room temperature has implications for devices operating in parallel. If the
system commences operation in low ambient temperatures, the effect can lead to one of the devices passing much more
current and overloading due to thermal runaway. However, increasing gate-source voltage to around 18 V-20 V reduces the
coefficient and increases the risk of an imbalance developing.

Though threshold voltage tends to reduce with increasing temperature, thanks to the reduction in bandgap voltage,
maintaining a high gate-source voltage is important to overall device performance. This is the case even at higher
temperatures. Experiments show that drain current tends to decrease with temperature. Several factors contribute to this
response. Carrier mobility changes with temperature, and the bandgap reduces, which impacts intrinsic carrier
concentration. This also leads to a temperature-dependent lowering in threshold voltage.

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7/31/24, 10:47 AM Understanding the Thermal Behavior of SiC - Technical Articles

Figure 1. Normalized on-resistance vs. temperature. Image used courtesy of Bodo’s Power Systems [PDF]

However, SiC MOSFETs will continue significantly improving RDS(on) when the gate-source voltage increases. Although
10 V is above the typical threshold voltage of a SiC MOSFET, conduction losses at this level would most likely lead to a
thermal runaway of the device. Operating at 20 V or above delivers better overall performance. When the device is turned
off, because of the temperature dependence of the threshold voltage, SemiQ’s recommendation is to maintain a gate bias of
–5 V. This low voltage prevents any unintended parasitic turn-on effects and ensures correct behavior at temperatures as
high as 175°C where the threshold voltage can fall to as little as 1.8 V from its typical level around 3 V.

At elevated temperatures, the positive coefficient of SiC MOSFETs will increase conduction losses. However, it may also
be important to consider the impact of drain current, which can substantially impact losses. Typically, on-resistance
increases with drain current. It increases by around 50% from 20 A to 120 A. Combined with the increase in resistance with
temperature, this can lead to a resistance of less than 40 mΩ for SemiQ’s 1.2 kV SiC MOSFET to around 140 mΩ at 175°C
when passing a current of 120 A. Circuit designers may choose to operate devices in parallel to pass less current through
each device where on-state resistance needs to be kept as low as possible.

Figure 2 illustrates the relationship between on-resistance and drain current across a range of temperatures (-55°C, 25°C,
125°C, and 175°C). At -55°C and 25°C, the device exhibits lower on-resistances and decreased variability compared to
those observed at 125°C and 175°C. Typically, SiC MOSFETs show a negative temperature coefficient (NTC) at lower
temperatures until reaching a specific threshold, then transition to a positive temperature coefficient (PTC).

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7/31/24, 10:47 AM Understanding the Thermal Behavior of SiC - Technical Articles

Figure 2. On-resistance vs. drain current for various temperatures. Image used courtesy of Bodo’s Power Systems [PDF]

The body diode’s effect on switching behavior is another area where circuit designers can focus on taking full advantage of
SiC’s properties and using higher switching frequencies. One effect of the body diode is reverse recovery current, caused
by minority charge carriers being cleared from the MOSFET’s body diode when the device is switched back on. This
reverse recovery current is translated into energy losses, directly affecting the power converter’s efficiency. The forward
voltage of the body diode in SiC devices is also higher than with silicon. For this reason, avoiding using the body diode
outside of the dead time in the switching cycle is important to minimize losses.

However, compared to conventional silicon devices, those built on SiC processes exhibit short recovery times when devices
are turned off. This reduction provides the opportunity to increase switching frequency. That, in turn, lets designers use
smaller external passive components in the support circuitry, which helps cut power-converter volume and costs.

A double-pulse test (DPT) provides valuable insight into detailed turn-on and turn-off performance. DPT turns the
transistor on and off at different current levels. By adjusting the switching times, the waveforms can be observed over the
full range of operating conditions. Using two pulses is important as it allows the evaluation of the reverse recovery current.
Other effects include ringing caused by high changes in current with time (di/dt) that interact with parasitic inductances and
capacitances in the device that may form resonant LC circuits.

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7/31/24, 10:47 AM Understanding the Thermal Behavior of SiC - Technical Articles

Image used courtesy of Bodo’s Power Systems [PDF]

Figure 3. (a) Turn-on Vds and Ids switching waveforms at 25°C and 175°C (b) (a) Turn-off Vds and Ids switching waveforms at 25°C and 175°C
for GP2T040A120J with a DC bus voltage of 800 V, a load current of 40 A, and using an external gate resistance of 4.3 Ω mΩ. Image used
courtesy of Bodo’s Power Systems [PDF]

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7/31/24, 10:47 AM Understanding the Thermal Behavior of SiC - Technical Articles

SemiQ carried out tests on devices in TO-263-7L packages to study the effects of temperature on this behavior. In this
testing configuration, only the device-under-test was subjected to heating, and surface-mount pads were used to connect it
to the PCB. A calibrated external clip-on heater was used to maintain a controlled temperature.

Tests demonstrate that the reverse recovery time tends to increase with temperature. This leads to turn-on losses exhibiting
an upward trend at elevated temperatures. However, turn-off losses remain relatively constant. Tests also showed that turn-
on waveforms have higher ringing than turn-off waveforms. Though turnoff involves a rapid change in voltage, the
parasitic elements may not form as strong of a resonant LC circuit during this phase, leading to relatively lower ringing.
The result is that circuit designs that focus on reducing the effects of the body diode and ringing, which snubbers can
facilitate, are most important during the turn-on phase, especially if the device is expected to operate at the high end of the
temperature range.

Though there is often a margin of safety set by device manufacturers to ensure MOSFETs can withstand their rated
breakdown voltage, tests have shown that this voltage increases with temperature. Taking as an example a 1.2 kV SiC
MOSFET, this device demonstrates a breakdown voltage of at least 1520 V at −50°C, rising to 1570 V at 150°C. Though
the drain leakage current also tends to increase with temperature, largely caused by the thermal generation of carriers, the
positive temperature coefficient of the breakdown voltage masks this effect in practice.

Image used courtesy of Bodo’s Power Systems [PDF]

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7/31/24, 10:47 AM Understanding the Thermal Behavior of SiC - Technical Articles

Figure 4. HTRB Test Results at 175°C and 1300V Reverse Bias. Image used courtesy of Bodo’s Power Systems [PDF]

The careful study of the behavior of the 1.2 kV SiC MOSFET provides valuable information on this type of device’s static
and dynamic characteristics. For designers aiming to take advantage of SiC’s ability to handle higher power-converter
switching frequency, it is important to consider temperature-dependent losses. Turn-on losses exhibit an upward trend at
elevated temperatures, but turnoff losses remain relatively constant. By paying attention to these differences, designers can
compensate for these effects and gain the full efficiency improvements made possible by SiC technology, as demonstrated
by the company’s QSIC 1.2 kV MOSFET modules.

Backed by more than 54 million hours of HTRB and H3TRB stress testing, the modules enable power-conversion
efficiency as high as 98%, which helps improve thermal stability and enhance reliability. These benefits make the SiC
modules ideal for a range of applications, including power supplies for DC power equipment, inverters, motor drives,
electric vehicle charging stations, and more.

This article originally appeared in Bodo’s Power Systems [PDF] magazine.

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