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Abstract

In medium- and high-power-density applications, silicon carbide (SiC) metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) are often connected in parallel increasing the current capability. However, the current sharing of paralleled SiC MOSFETs is affected by the mismatched technical parameters of devices and the deviated power circuit parasitic inductances, even if power devices are controlled by a single gate driver. This leads to unevenly distributed power losses causing different stress between SiC MOSFETs. As a result, unbalanced current sharing increases the probability of severe power switch(es) and system failures. For over a decade, the current imbalance issue between parallel-connected SiC MOSFETs has concerned the scientific community, and many methods and techniques have been proposed. However, most of these solutions are impossible to realize without the necessity of screening power devices to measure their technical parameters. Consequently, system costs significantly increase due to the expensive equipment for screening SiC MOSFETs. Also, transient current imbalance is the main concern of most papers, without addressing static imbalance. In this paper, an innovative approach is proposed, capable of suppressing both static and transient current imbalance between paralleled SiC MOSFETs, under both symmetrical and asymmetrical layouts, through an improved active gate driver and without the requirement for any power device screening process. Additionally, the proposed solution employs a self-sustaining algorithmic approach utilizing current sensors and a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). The functionality of the proposed solution is verified through experimental tests, achieving current imbalance suppression between two paralleled SiC MOSFETs, actively and autonomously.

Details

1009240
Title
A Novel Field-Programmable Gate Array-Based Self-Sustaining Current Balancing Approach for Silicon Carbide MOSFETs
Publication title
Volume
14
Issue
2
First page
268
Publication year
2025
Publication date
2025
Publisher
MDPI AG
Place of publication
Basel
Country of publication
Switzerland
Publication subject
e-ISSN
20799292
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
Document type
Journal Article
Publication history
 
 
Online publication date
2025-01-10
Milestone dates
2024-11-30 (Received); 2025-01-07 (Accepted)
Publication history
 
 
   First posting date
10 Jan 2025
ProQuest document ID
3159491155
Document URL
https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/novel-field-programmable-gate-array-based-self/docview/3159491155/se-2?accountid=208611
Copyright
© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.
Last updated
2025-01-25
Database
2 databases
  • ProQuest One Academic
  • ProQuest One Academic