Electrothermal simulations of silicon carbide current limiting devices

Dominique Planson (1, 2) , J.P. Chante (1, 2) , M. Lazar (1, 2) , P. Brosselard (1, 2) , Christophe Raynaud (1, 2) , D. Tournier (3) , Marie-Laure Locatelli (4) , F. Nallet (2, 1)

1 CEGELY - Centre de génie électrique de Lyon
2 INSA Lyon - Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon
3 UAB - Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona = Autonomous University of Barcelona = Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona
4 LGET - Laboratoire de génie électrique de Toulouse

SiC is a semiconductor material that could satisfy the requirements of electrical protective devices. This work presents two devices as current limiters for serial protection application. The first device structure is a vertical power MOSFET-like with an existing N channel. The second is a LVJET with buried p-wells and an additional gate electrode. Their electrical performances were simulated with ISE TCAD tools. A study of their electrothermal behavior is presented, demonstrating the SiC superiority over silicon with regards to this field.

Mots clés: serial protection; SiC; power electronics; current limiting device; electrothermal simulation

Domaines: Electronique; Energie électrique

Dominique Planson, J.P. Chante, M. Lazar, P. Brosselard, Christophe Raynaud, et al.. Electrothermal simulations of silicon carbide current limiting devices. 2003 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology, Dec 2003, Maribor, Slovenia. pp.1135-1140, ⟨10.1109/ICIT.2003.1290823⟩. ⟨hal-02498210⟩