We are deeply honored that our colleague Ruben Schnitzler received the Semikron Danfoss Young Engineer award for the topic “Rapid Gate Switching Instability Characterization of SiC MOSFET at Extended Lifetimes using Accelerated Switching Frequencies of 40 MHz”,
In the framework of KDT JU Archimedes at the Institute of Robust Power Semiconductor Systems, University of Stuttgart, highly accelerated dynamic gate-stress test benches are developed for the reliability assessment of SiC MOSFETs, in which the investigated phenomenon degrades the threshold voltage and, consequently, efficiency.
In traditional test systems, the characterization for long-lifetime application of 120,000 hours and more, such as industrial drives, PV, and LLC applications, may require qualification times of 600 days or more to test to the end of life. Using stress frequencies up to 40 MHz, this work reduces the qualification time for traditional dynamic gate-stress characterization to 1 hour and, for PV applications, to 10 days, without altering the underlying failure mechanism.
It is shown that simple extrapolation is not sufficient to characterize degradation at such high lifetimes, due to saturation, reversal and retrapping. This work provides a better understanding in accurately modelling SiC MOSFETs Degradation at long lifetimes and reveals effect previously unknown.
Thank you to everyone involved in the project, Semikron Danfoss and the jury for this recognition!
