Wide Band semiconductors on power

Opportunities and challenges

Vidhya B. (2022H1230133G)
Abstract
Recently, power electronic devices have reached their limits due to
the low breakdown field, low thermal conductivity, and limited
switching frequency of Si. This led to the introduction of wide band
semiconductors(WBG) such as GaN, and SiC which have been
swashed for their performance in high frequency and high power
applications. There are opportunities, challenges, and potential
solutions for the various WBG in power electronics applications. It
gives an overview of the market for WBG semiconductors and the
future perspective in power applications depending on their
fundamental characteristics.
INTRODUCTION
Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) WBG
semiconductors have recently introduced for power electronics
applications to replace silicon devices, focusing on improved
power efficiency, reduced size and lower cost. SiC is preferred for
higher output power applications (high operating voltage). On
other hand, GaN is suitable for higher switching frequency, low
power or voltage applications. SiC possess high thermal
conductivity and wide band gap used for power switching devices.
GaN has direct bandgap and high-frequency performance which
can be used for optoelectronic and RF devices .
PROPERTIES OF WBG SEMICONDUCTORS
PROPERTIES OF SILICON CARBIDE
SiC has light weight, small and compact which makes them useful
for high voltage applications. They are having high thermal
conductivity and are quite used in temperature applications as it
allows more heat transfer from sink yielding junction temperature.
SiC JFET has low voltage drop and high switching speed and can
be alternate for MOSFET as it is free from gate oxide interface
problems. Schottky diodes has high frequency applications and low
switching losses. SiC sensors has the ability to amplify low level
sensor signals and are widely used in vibration, temperature and
pressure measurement devices. Some properties of WBG materials
are given in figure 2.
PROPERTIES OF GALLIUM NITRIDE
GaN is a wide bandgap semiconductor material that is now used in
radio frequency applications and optoelectronic applications due to
its direct bandgap and high frequency performance. Among the
three WBG semiconductors, GaN is the only heterostructure. It can
utilize WBG semiconductors' capacity for handling power in a
unique way. Because GaN HEMTs naturally have stronger
transconductance (which aids linearity), good thermal
management, and higher cut off frequencies, they can solve many
of the issues LDMOS devices cause..

WBG materials have a wide energy bandgap, above 3 eV, which

leads to a large breakdown electric field of about 3 MV/cm, 10
times higher than that of silicon. This is a crucial characteristic for
achieving high-voltage functioning and a significant blocking
voltage.. GaN, has comparatively high 2D mobility, because of the
high density of the 2D electron gas at the GaN/AlGaN interface and
has high electron saturation velocity than Si. SiC and GaN have an
advantage in terms of both thermal conductivity and melting point
with respect to silicon. Basic properties of WBG materials are
given in Figure 1.

Figure2: Fundamental characteristics of WBG semiconductors

Figure 1: Fundamental properties of WBG materials
MATURITY OF WBG SEMICONDUCTORS
To evaluate how the intrinsic potential of WBG materials,
following the derivation of BFOM, we can determine an intrinsic
limit per each material, which becomes a line in the log-log plot of
the on-resistance RON versus the breakdown voltage VBD, shown
in Figure 3 for silicon, SiC and GaN.

Figure 4a: Normally ON GaN HEMT

RECENT POWER DEVICES

Si Mosfets can operate at high switching frequency at 100

to 200 KHZ and low voltage range(below 1 KV) which rely on
power converters on 100 W or below. Recently, Infineon CoolMos
Figure 3: device performance Superjunction MOSFET’s) used for low power Switched mode
power supply applications. Infineon and Panasonic ha recently
announced the 650 V GaN devices. Infineon coolSic Family with
Sic Mosfets available in 650V,1200V and 1700V classes. GaN
Why GaN, SiC not Silicon provided by tranphorm with cascode device operating to 900V.
Silicon has some intrinsic limits due to relatively small band gap
which can limits the breakdown voltage at a given on resistance.
SiC can operate at high Vbd at high temperature, has smaller size
than Si.. At the same Vbd, it can operate at higher breakdown field,
results in low switching loss led to low switching frequency. GaN
devices(n channels) has high switching frequency and low system
volume and cost.

WBG SEMICONDUCTOR FET

 Under 1.2 KV to 6.5 KV SiC MOSFETS can replace

Silicon MOSFETS. But 15 KV breakdown voltage high
Ron is obtained
 GaN HEMT(AlGaN/GaN heterostructure). But this layer
is subjected to tensile strain if they possess lattice
mismatch. They are used for high electron mobility with
no impurities as given in figure 4a
 Power application suggests GaN to grow on Si wafers.
Nearly 111 Si wafers and stack of transition layer with
gradual lattice mismatch and AlGaN on top (depletion
mode FET) as normally on device
 a normally-off device is the Metal Insulator-
Semiconductor-HEMT (MIS-HEMT), based on a
recessed gate obtained by eliminating the AlGaN layer in
the underneath region, leading to a depletion of the
inversion layer as figure 4b
 A better option is the use of a p-GaN gate by growing an
additional p-doped GaN layer before deposition of the
gate contact as figure 4b
Figure 4b: Alternative normally-OFF GaN HFET (a) GaN
MIS-HEMT and (b) p-GaN HFET.
Application of Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Devices in
Power Converters
1. SiC Inverters for PV systems
As given in figure 5 dc input of 600v and ac output
of 400 V, each inverter has a conversion efficiency of 98
percentage. This can be achieved by PV inverter
manufactures with Si IGBT’s getting peak to peak
current ripple of 10% of nominal output current (Irms=25
A). with same topology and ripple condition, use of fast
switching devices enables an increasing switching
frequency.
 Blocking voltage VBD of 1200v are:
Infineon SiC JFET(Idc=80A) in cascode
configurationto obtain normally off
behaviour.
 SiC devices are smaller with intrinsic
capacitances can be operated at higher
 switching frequency with respect to silicon
case, without sacrificing the efficiency.
 Power loss of SiC inverters is lower than the
one realized with Si IGBT’s (despite the
higher switching frequency), cheaper heat
sinks and inverter housings can be adopted
with additional savings.
 Cost factors are summarized in figure 6.
 SiC devices cost much higher than Si
IGBT’s,the other costs present a higher
absolute reduction, so that costs are reduced
by 20%.

Figure 7: EV fast charger

GaN and SiC due to comparable Ron there is a reduction

of power as compared to silicon counterparts. A higher
efficiency is also shown if the frequency is increased,
especially for the GaN case, due to smaller intrinsic
capacitances. Then, for each converter implementation
(that is for any Vienna rectifier and PSFB DC/DC
converter), the switching frequency has been selected
depending on the considered transistor, as the frequency
that enables to reach a conversion efficiency of 98.2% for
rectifiers and 97% for the DC/DC converter. Efficiency
versus frequency for rectifiers and dc to dc converters are
plotted as figure 8.

Figure 6: Cost analysis of SiC system

2. GaN and SiC Rectifiers and DC/DC converters

for Electric vehicles ultra fast chargers

The Electrification of vehicles provides new

applications for power converters. For instance, in
order to transfer up to 350 kW to the EV battery without
jeopardising the converter system's stability and with a
minimal temperature increase from Joule heating, ultra-
fast charging infrastructures are required due to the
anticipated explosion of the electric vehicle (EV)
industry. Due to their ability to work at high blocking
voltages and to handle the significant amount of power
that needs to be transferred from the grid to the EV.
WBG materials may be the ideal choice for these
applications. A charger is normally composed by two
stages, a three phase rectifier in boost mode and an
isolated DC/DC converter in step-down mode, such as
the case depicted in Figure7. In most cases, modular
strategies are used to distribute the entire power among
various rectifier and. By referring to a three-switch
unidirectional boost converter topology for the rectifier,
and to an isolated Phase-Shift Full-Bridge (PSFB)
converter topology for the DC/DC converter stage, we
have selected both active and passive components for
various design proposals and simulated the conversion
efficiency as a function of the switching frequency.
Figure 8: Conversion Efficiency as function of switching
frequency
If we analyze the obtained results, in case of WBG
systems the device cost is always higher than the one of
the silicon counterpart and represents a big fraction (in
the rectifiers) or almost the total cost (in the DC/DC
converter) of the components. However, due to higher
switching frequency enabled by WBG semiconductor
devices (especially for GaN) at similar efficiency
conditions, much cheaper and smaller passive
components can be selected. For this reason, for both
rectifier and DC/DC converter cases, the two options
based on Si devices turn out to be the most cumbersome.
3. GaN 48V -12V Bidirectional DC/DC Converter
These are used for automotive sector for balance
recharging. We can consider the 40V and 60 V Si and
GaN devices for the bidirectional power converters as
given in figure 9. GaN and Si implementation of DC/DC
 converters are operated at 150 KHz the frequency
selected is high so that it can minimise the switching loss.
Figure 9: Considered 40V and 60V Si and GaN
power devices for the bidirectional power
converters
Switched capacitors used for bidirectional Schematic is
given in figure 10
Figure 10: Bidirectional Converter schematic
the converter efficiency in step-down (a) and step-up (b)
mode is reported for both GaN and Si converters. Only the
GaN converter (red curves) achieves the best performance
in both operation modes, with a full load efficiency of
∼98.5% and peak efficiency close to 99%. The Si
converter, instead, can reach similar performance only in
one conversion direction, that is in step-up mode. An
analysis on the current waveforms has highlighted that Si
devices feature slower turn-on and turnoff, then a higher
peak current flows through the switches to guarantee the
same charge transfer among flying capacitors, leading to
overall higher RMS current and then to higher conduction
loss, irrespective of the RON similar to the GaN device.
MARKET ANALYSIS
WBG semiconductor market size can also provide an
indication of their technology maturity. In Figure 11, recent
market (Q4 2020, already considering the the COVID19
slowdown). The growth of power SiC device market
revenue in 2020 has been in single digit range (∼7%),
while the annual growth of the market of SiC devices from
2021 to 2025 is predicted to be in the 20 ∼ 50% range
exceeding in 2025 also in In Figure 11
Figure 11: Power SiC and GaN market revenue
and forecast until 2025
CHALLENGES
SiC has no liquid state. This means that most Si processing
techniques such as crystal pulling, zone refinement and rapid
thermal processing have little applications to SiC. • Single crystal
SiC wafers are particularly difficult to grow in large sizes, and they
frequently have flaws. GaN has some genuinely wonderful
properties, however creating GaN semiconductor technology will
present numerous difficulties.. For GaN, optoelectronics
applications are the dominant market drives, but the market suffers
of the high costs and reliability problem.III-IV nitride compounds
do not posses a native oxide, therefore the true MOS devices of
GaN will not be feasible.
The Industries that Benefit from WBG Device
Technology
The major industries that will benefit WBG device
technology are electric vehicles, aerospace, renewable
energy, HVAC units, appliances, uninterruptable power
supplies. For applications such as power converters in jet
engine compartments, automobile engine compartments,
and space applications where the high-temperature
capability of power electronics is required, certainly SiC
technology will be very important and useful.
 Industries Benefiting from Power Electronic
WBG technology Products
saving cost can also increase if WBG devices are operated at
higher temperature reducing the cost of heat removal. As
Electric Vehicles Inverters, dc/dc fabrication technology improves and defects are reduced,
converters, battery advantages will become larger fostering higher market penetration
chargers, air conditioner and an increased silicon replacement.
compressor, fan, pump
controllers
REFERENCES
Aerospace Compressor, fan, pump
controllers, actuators,  Power Electronics Based on Wide-Bandgap Semiconductors:
main engine and Opportunities and Challenges GIUSEPPE IANNACCONE ,
auxiliary power unit (Fellow, IEEE), CHRISTIAN SBRANA , (Student Member,
starter units IEEE), IACOPO MORELLI , AND SEBASTIANO
STRANGIO , (Member, IEEE)(2021)
Wind Power Power Conversion Units
 Nptel video lecture on wide band power electronics.
(AC-DC and DC-AC  Comparision of Wide Band Gap Semiconductors for Power
conversion) and actuator Electronics Applications Deena Jain, Sapna Rajawat, Puja
controllers for pitch Agrawal for International Conference on
controller
Microwave - 08
Solar Power Power Conversion Units

Ocean Power Power Conversion Units

(AC-DC and DC-AC
conversion)
Heating Ventilation Air Motor drives to run
Conditioners (HVAC) compressors, fans, and
pumps
Appliances (Refrigerators, Motor drives
Washer/Dryers, etc.)

Uninterruptable Power Supplies Power Converters (AC-

(UPS) DC and DC-AC
conversion)
Industrial and Servo Industries Motor drives, and dc/dc
converters, active
rectifiers, active filters

Oil and Mining Industry High temperature power

electronics for motor
drives, power supplies,
actuator controllers

High-Temperature Applications Power electronic

converters placed in jet
engine compartments,
automobile engine
compartments, space
applications

CONCLUSIONS
GaN and SiC devices can provide advantage to costs as higher
device cost is compensated by the lower cost of passive
components enabled by higher switching frequency. System