Protection, Control, and Auxiliary Power of Medium-Voltage High-Frequency SiC Devices

Due to the superior characteristics compared to its silicon (Si) counterpart, the wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor enables next-generation power electronics systems with higher efficiency and higher power density. With higher blocking voltage available, WBG devices, especially the silicon carbide (SiC) metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET), have been widely explored in various medium-voltage (MV) applications in both industry and academia. However, due to the high di/dt and high dv/dt during the switching transient, potential overcurrent, overvoltage, and gate failure can greatly reduce the reliability of implementing SiC MOSFETs in an MV system.

By utilizing the parasitic inductance between the Kelvin- and the power-source terminal, a short-circuit (SC) and overload (OL) dual-protection scheme is proposed for overcurrent protection. A full design procedure and reliability analysis are given for SC circuit design. A novel OL circuit is proposed to protect OL faults at the gate-driver level. The protection procedure can detect an SC fault within 50 nanoseconds and protect the device within 1.1 microsecond. The proposed method is a simple and effective solution for the potential overcurrent problem of the SiC MOSFET.

For SiC MOSFETs in series-connection, the unbalanced voltages can result in system failure due to device breakdown or unbalanced thermal stresses. By injecting current during the turn-off transient, an active dv/dt control method is used for voltage balancing. A 6 kV phase-leg using eight 1.7 kV SiC MOSFETs in series-connection has been tested with voltage balanced accurately. Modeling of the stacked SiC MOSFET with active dv/dt control is also done to summarize the design methodology for an effective and stable system. This method provides a low-loss and compact solution for overvoltage problems when MV SiC MOSFETs are connected in series.

Furthermore, a scalable auxiliary power network is proposed to prevent gate failure caused by unstable gate voltage or EMI interference. The two-stage auxiliary power network (APN) architecture includes a wireless power transfer (WPT) converter supplied by a grounded low voltage dc bus, a high step-down-ratio (HSD) converter powered from dc-link capacitors, and a battery-based mini-UPS backup power supply. The auxiliary-power-only pre-charge and discharge circuits are also designed for a 6 kV power electronics building block (PEBB). The proposed architecture provides a general solution of a scalable and reliable auxiliary power network for the SiC-MOSFET-based MV converter.

For the WPT converter, a multi-objective optimization on efficiency, EMI mitigation, and high voltage insulation capability have been proposed. Specifically, a series-series-CL topology is proposed for the WPT converter. With the optimization and new topology, a 120 W, 48 V to 48 V WPT converter has been tested to be a reliable part of the auxiliary power network.

For the HSD converter, a novel unidirectional voltage-balancing circuit is proposed and connected in an interleaved manner, which provides a fully modular and scalable solution. A ``linear regulator + buck" solution is proposed to be an integrated on-board auxiliary power supply. A 6 kV to 45 V, 100 W converter prototype is built and tested to be another critical part of the auxiliary power network.