HIGH POWER SIC PIN RECTIFIERS

Abstract

High voltage PiN rectifiers made using conventional semiconductor materials such as Silicon are restricted to less than 20 kHz and less 120°C operation, thereby severely limiting the availability of advanced electronic hardware used for power grid (also called electric utility), energy storage, pulsed power, intelligent machinery and ultra high voltage solid state power conditioning. Such applications require high power density, very high frequency, and high temperature rectifiers to realize reasonably sized systems. SiC PiN Rectifiers are expected to play an enabling role in a variety of such high voltage applications because they have been shown to offer 2 to 3 orders of magnitude faster switching, high junction temperature capability, high current density operation, and much higher power densities as compared to Silicon.