SiC Power Diodes Provide Breakthrough Performance for a Wide Range of Applications

Published

March 1, 2001

Author(s)

Allen R. Hefner Jr., Ranbir Singh, Jih-Sheng Lai, David W. Berning, Sebastien Bouche, Christophe C. Chapuy

Abstract

The electrical performance of Silicon Carbide (SiC) diodes are evaluated and compared to commercially available Silicon (Si) diodes in the voltage range from 600 V through 5000 V. The comparisons include the on-state characteristics, the reverse recovery characteistics, and power converter efficiency and electro-magnetic interference (EMI). It is shown that a newly developed 1500 V SiC Merged PiN Schottky (MPS) diode has significant performance advantages over Si diodes optimized for various voltages in the range of 600 V through 1500 V. It is also shown that a newly developed 5000 V SiC PiN diode has significant performance advantages over Si diodes optimized for various voltages in the range of 2000 V through 5000 V. In a test case power converter, replacing the best 600 V Si diodes available with the 1500 V SiC MPS diode, results in an increase of power supply efficiency from 82 % to 88 % for switching at 186 kHz, and a reduction in EMI emissions.

Citation

IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics

Volume

16

Issue

2

Pub Type

Journals

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Local Download

Keywords

diode, junction barrier schottky diode, merged diode, pin diode, power conversion, reverse recovery, ultra-fast diode

Citation

Hefner Jr., A. , Singh, R. , Lai, J. , Berning, D. , Bouche, S. and Chapuy, C. (2001), SiC Power Diodes Provide Breakthrough Performance for a Wide Range of Applications, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=6674 (Accessed October 16, 2025)