5 kV, 9.5 A SiC JBS Diodes with Non-Uniform Guard Ring Edge Termination for High Power Switching Application

Abstract

4H-SiC Junction Barrier Diodes (JBS) diodes were designed, fabricated and tested. The JBS diodes based on a 45μm thick, 1.4×1015cm-3 doped drift layer with multiple non-uniform spacing guard ring edge termination showed a blocking voltage of over 5kV. The 5kV JBS diode has a forward current density of 108A/cm2 at 3.5V and a specific on resistance (RSP_ON) of 25.2mW·cm2, which is very close to the theoretical RSP_ON of 23.3mΩ·cm2. DC I-V measurement of packaged JBS diodes showed a forward current of 100A at a voltage drop of 4.3V. A half-bridge inverter with a bus voltage up to 2.5kV was used to characterize the high power switching performance of SiC JBS diodes. A large inductance load of 1mH was used to simulate the load of a high power AC induction motor. Compared to a Si PIN diode module, the SiC JBS package reduces diode turn-off energy loss by 30% and Si IGBT turn-on energy loss by 21% at room temperature.