Browsing by Author "Liu, Zhengyang"

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    Characterization and Application of Wide-Band-Gap Devices for High Frequency Power Conversion
    Liu, Zhengyang (Virginia Tech, 2017-06-08)
    Advanced power semiconductor devices have consistently proven to be a major force in pushing the progressive development of power conversion technology. The emerging wide-band-gap (WBG) material based power semiconductor devices are considered as gaming changing devices which can exceed the limit of silicon (Si) and be used to pursue groundbreaking high-frequency, high-efficiency, and high-power-density power conversion. The switching performance of cascode GaN HEMT is studied at first. An accurate behavior-level simulation model is developed with comprehensive consideration of the impacts of parasitics. Then based on the simulation model, detailed loss breakdown and loss mechanism analysis are studied. The cascode GaN HEMT has high turn-on loss due to the reverse recovery charge and junction capacitor charge, and the common source inductance (CSI) of the package; while the turn-off loss is extremely small attributing to unique current source turn off mechanism of the cascode structure. With this unique feature, the critical conduction mode (CRM) soft switching technique is applied to reduce the dominant turn on loss and significantly increase converter efficiency. The switching frequency is successfully pushed to 5MHz while maintaining high efficiency and good thermal performance. Traditional packaging method is becoming a bottle neck to fully utilize the advantages of GaN HEMT. So an investigation of the package influence on the cascode GaN HEMT is also conducted. Several critical parasitic inductance are identified, which cause high turn on loss and high parasitic ringing that may lead to device failure. To solve the issue, the stack-die package is proposed to eliminate all critical parasitic inductance, and as a result, reducing turn on loss by half and avoiding potential failure mode of the cascode GaN device effectively. Utilizing soft switching and enhanced packaging, a GaN-based MHz totem-pole PFC rectifier is demonstrated with 99% peak efficiency and 700 W/in3 power density. The switching frequency of the PFC is more than ten times higher than the state-of-the-art industry product while it achieves best possible efficiency and power density. Integrated power module and integrated PCB winding coupled inductor are all studied and applied in this PFC. Furthermore, the technology of soft switching totem-pole PFC is extended to a bidirectional rectifier/inverter design. By using SiC MOSFETs, both operating voltage and power are dramatically increased so that it is successfully applied into a bidirectional on-board charger (OBC) which achieves significantly improved efficiency and power density comparing to the best of industrial practice. In addition, a novel 2-stage system architecture and control strategy are proposed and demonstrated in the OBC system. As a continued extension, the critical mode based soft switching rectifier/inverter technology is applied to three-phase AC/DC converter. The inherent drawback of critical mode due to variable frequency operation is overcome by the proposed new modulation method with the idea of frequency synchronization. It is the first time that a critical mode based modulation is demonstrated in the most conventional three phase H-bridge AC/DC converter, and with 99% plus efficiency at above 300 kHz switching frequency.
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    Characterization and Failure Mode Analysis of Cascode GaN HEMT
    Liu, Zhengyang (Virginia Tech, 2014-07-16)
    Recent emerging gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) is expected to be a promising candidate for high frequency power conversion techniques. Due to the advantages of the material, the GaN HEMT has a better figure of merit (FOM) compared to the state-of-the-art silicon (Si) power metal oxide silicon field effect transistor (MOSFET), which allows the GaN HEMT to switch with faster transition and lower switching loss. By applying the GaN HEMT in a circuit design, it is possible to achieve high frequency, high efficiency, and high density power conversion at the same time. To characterize the switching performance of the GaN HEMT, an accurate behavior-level simulation model is developed in this thesis. The packaging related parasitic inductance, including both self-inductance and mutual-inductance, are extracted based on finite element analysis (FEA) methods. Then the accuracy of the simulation model is verified by a double-pulse tester, and the simulation results match well with experiment in terms of both device switching waveform and switching energy. Based on the simulation model, detailed loss breakdown and loss mechanism analysis are made. The cascode GaN HEMT has high turn-on loss due to the body diode reverse recovery of the low voltage Si MOSFET and the common source inductance (CSI) of the package; while the turn-off loss is extremely small attributing to the cascode structure. With this unique feature, the critical conduction mode (CRM) soft switching technique are applied to reduce the dominant turn on loss and increase converter efficiency significantly. The switching frequency is successfully pushed to 5MHz while maintaining high efficiency and good thermal performance. Traditional packaging method is becoming a bottle neck to fully utilize the advantages of GaN HEMT. So an investigation of the package influence on the cascode GaN HEMT is also conducted. Several critical parasitic inductors are identified, which cause high turn on loss and high parasitic ringing which may lead to device failure. To solve the issue, the stack-die package is proposed to eliminate all critical parasitic inductors, and as a result, reducing turn on loss by half and avoiding potential failure mode of the cascode GaN device effectively. Utilizing the proposed stack-die package and ZVS soft switching, the GaN HEMT high frequency, high efficiency, and high density power conversion capability can be further extended to a higher level.
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    Critical-mode-based soft-switching techniques for three-phase bi-directional AC/DC converters
    (United States Patent and Trademark Office, 2019-05-14)
    Critical-mode soft-switching techniques for a power converter are described. In one example, a power converter includes a converter electrically coupled between an alternating current (AC) power system and a direct current (DC) power system, where the converter includes a number of phase legs. The power converter can also include a control system configured, during a portion of a whole line cycle of the AC power system, to clamp a first phase leg of the converter from switching and operate second and third phase legs of the converter independently in either critical conduction mode (CRM) or in discontinuous conduction mode (DCM).