Page 22 - Power Electronics News - December 2020

Semiconductors SMART ENERGY

Meeting the power

Figure 4: Gen 3 to Gen 4: Switching Waveforms at 400V-80A Inductive Load, half-Bridge [Source: UnitedSiC].
High Q and high forward voltage drop correspond The switching frequency of a silicon carbide MOS-
rr
to high losses in circuits, which force or require FET can be up to five times that of a silicon device, challenges of the smart
the body diode to conduct, for example. in hard- with the consequent possibility of using smaller
switched bridges with inductive loads. An extra passive components. The higher switching fre- grid
parallel SiC Schottky diode can be added to bypass quency enables some extra requirements in the
the body diode, but at high cost and with limited design phase of the gate driver, which not only has By Anthony T. Huynh and Nazzareno Rossetti, Maxim Integrated
benefit. In Gen 4, Qrr offers an improvement from to generate a larger VGS to bring the device into
840 nC (Gen 3) to 462 nC (Gen 4). conduction state (minimizing R DS(on) ), but also has to
provide a very fast output slew rate so as to charge Power grid modernization is progressing at a ing, and management of outages, over- and un-
“The total switching energy loss here for the new and discharge the capacitance of the gate circuit steady pace. Modern control and automation tech- der-voltages, and power factor correction.

generation device is better than the old one. You very quickly. niques can have significant energy savings, protect
can see in figure 4 that the turnoff is very good in the environment, and enhance quality of life by Automation can improve the speed, cost, and
both cases. All these devices are very fast for induc- improving the health and safety of citizens. Energy accuracy of these key distribution functions to de-
tive turn off. But E loss improvement is what really distribution automation uses digital sensors and liver reliability improvements and cost savings to
on
helps when you’re doing hard switching,” said Anup switches with advanced control and communica- customers. This requires control of field devices to
Bhalla. GO TO WEB ARTICLE > tion technologies to automate functions including enable automated decision-making in the field and
electric power generation and switching, as well as to relay critical information to the utility control

real-time adjustments to load changes, monitor- center.

For More Information

▶ UnitedSiC

▶ UnitedSiC Design Resources

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