Proceedings of the 31st International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices & ICs

May 19-23, 2019, Shanghai, China

Soft-Switching Losses in GaN and SiC

Power Transistors Based on
New Calorimetric Measurements
Julian Weimer and Ingmar Kallfass
Institute of Robust Power Semiconductor Systems, University of Stuttgart, Germany. Email: julian.weimer@ilh.uni-stuttgart.de

Abstract—The use of modern GaN and SiC power semicon-

ductors in soft-switching power electronic applications makes it Heat Sink
Half Bridge
possible to minimize switching losses and to achieve a significant (DUT) Load
increase in power density. However, the loss mechanisms in soft-
switching operation of power semiconductors are poorly under-
stood and electrical measurements of these losses are affected
by a large error. Therefore calorimetric measuring methods are
becoming state of the art for determining soft-switching losses.
This paper for the first time presents empirical power dissipation
data for high voltage GaN and SiC power semiconductors of Supply Board
low power class at application-oriented switching frequencies for
zero voltage switching (ZVS) operation. The losses were measured
using a transient calorimetric measurement setup with the goal of
determining also low power dissipation with high accuracy while Fig. 1. Measurement setup with open thermal insulation consisting of supply
maintaining the application-oriented commutation cell layout. board PCB, half bridge PCB, heat sink and load.

Keywords—Soft-Switching Losses, ZVS, Calorimetric Mea-

surement, High Voltage GaN/SiC Power Transistor.
Thermal Insulation Box

I. I NTRODUCTION vs,hs Ths iΔ

In order to achieve a high power density for a 150 W
ac/dc charger, a switching frequency of up to 1 MHz should
be reached to minimize the size of the passive components.
The very low power dissipation budget due to passive cooling
requires soft-switching and the use of modern wide bandgap
semiconductors. To reduce losses, the choice of a suitable
semiconductor depends on a good knowledge of the expected
switching and conduction losses for different current and
voltage loads.
Unlike conduction losses, soft-switching losses cannot be
predicted based on data sheet values. Although ideally no
switching losses should occur in the transistors for soft-
switching operation, COSS -losses can be observed for charg-
ing and discharging the output capacitance [1]. Only recently
the origin of the COSS -losses for GaN-on-Si HEMTS could
be determined [2]. A prediction of the soft-switching losses,
however, remains difficult and is influenced not only by the
semiconductors but also by packaging and layout due to
parasitic capacitances. Electrical measurements of the small
switching energies are affected by a too large error because of
switching slopes in the ns range [3].
Therefore calorimetric measuring methods are used for
determining soft-switching losses [2]–[8]. High measurement
speeds and high accuracy can be achieved by shifting the mea-
surement from the thermally steady state to the heating phase.
Chs
Gate
Vdc Driver
Cdc,2 Cdc,1 L
vs,ls Tls
Gate Cls
Driver
Fig. 2. Schemetic of the calorimetric measurement setup, consisting of half
bridge and capacitive-inductive load.
However, in current approaches a simplified thermal model
is used which is no longer valid for very low semiconductor
losses for which large heat sinks achieve too little temperature
change. By utilizing smaller heat sinks, positioning the temper-
ature measurement close to the semiconductors and calibrating
the calorimetric measurement system to the corresponding
time dependent thermal impedance, even very small losses can
be determined with high accuracy. Furthermore, only minor
changes are made to the layout of the commutation cell,
so that the measured losses allow predictions for the target
application. Fig. 1 shows the measurement setup with the
corresponding Schematic in Fig. 2. The three examined half
bridges with similar layout but different power transistors are
shown in Fig. 3.

978-1-7281-0581-9/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE 455

 Ths

Heat Sink Ts
Silicone Pad
(a) (b) (c) PCB + Vias
Fig. 3. Half bridge DUTs: PGA26E19BA GaN HEMT (a), LMG3410 GaN Insulation Box Temp. Sensor
Power Stage (b), C3M0120090J SiC MOSFET (c).
Tj 0,88 x 0,88 mm
Transistor

II. T RANSIENT C ALORIMETTRIC M EASUREMENT
A. Electrical Measurement Setup
All DUTs were designed as comparable half bridges which
can be used in the target application. The half bridges were
each realized as single PCBs, that are connected to the supply
board via elevated connectors (see Fig. 3). For calorimet-
ric power dissipation measurement, the semiconductors must
switch over several seconds to minutes at defined switch-
ing currents with soft-switching transitions. In addition, the
losses must be distributed symmetrically between the high-
side (HS) and the low-side (LS) transistor. The topology
with an inductive capacitive load from Fig. 2 has proven
to be suitable for this [2], [6]–[8]. During operation with a
50 % duty cycle, the triangular current I∆ is generated across
the load. The soft-switching transitions always occur at the
triangular peak currents and by selecting the load inductance,
the same transistor switching and effective currents can be
achieved for different switching frequencies: L = 8fVdcIˆ .
sw ∆
By exchanging the inductance L, an operation at different
switching frequencies with constant conduction losses can be
realized. The load inductances used were designed as air coils
to avoid non-linearity due to saturating core material.
To minimize the parasitic inductance of the commutation
cell, a ceramic capacitor Cdc,1 is located on each half bridge
PCB near the switching power transistors. Together with the
transistor-near placement of the gate drivers, optimal switching
operations can be ensured. The supply board provides the
galvanically separated high side and low side driver voltages
and stabilizes the DC link voltage with the capacitance Cdc,2
which consists of six film capacitors with 5 µF each. The
switching signals are generated with variable frequency, dead
time and duration by means of a frequency generator.
B. Thermal Measurement Setup
For the calorimetric measurement of transistor losses, a tem-
perature measurement independent of other power dissipation
sources is required. Due to the division into half bridge board
and supply board and the use of a thermal insulation box,
the losses of the half bridge are thermally separated from the
losses in supply and load. The LMT70A analog IC from Texas
Instruments is used as the temperature sensor. In addition,
the temperature signal in the measuring range from 20 ◦C to
50 ◦C is amplified to 0 V to 5 V via an op-amp circuit. In
order to measure a sufficient temperature swing even for low
Fig. 4. Temperature sensor fixed with SMD adhesive on the transistor heat
dissipation pad and cross-section of the measurement setup indicating the
temperature sensor position.
Rth,j-a
Zth,j-a
Cth,j-a Zth,j-s Zth,s-a
Rth,s-a
Rth,j-s Tj
Tj Ts
PT
Ts
Cth,s-a Ta PT Ta
(a) (b)
Fig. 5. Simplified (a) and applied (b) thermal Model.
transistor losses, the temperature sensor is placed on the heat
sink side of the heat dissipation pad of a power transistor in
contrast to the usual positioning at the heat sink. Fig. 4 shows
the temperature sensor position and the schematic structure in
cross-section. The placement on the heat sink side ensures
only minor interference with the commutation cell layout.
The advantage of this good thermal connection goes hand
in hand with increased electromagnetic compatibility (EMC)
problems. The sensor and the amplifier circuit are therefore
supplied by battery and the sensor voltage measurement is
galvanically isolated with the help of a differential probe. This
also makes it possible to measure the sensor temperature on the
drain potential of the SiC MOSFETs which are cooled via the
drain connector. An aluminum block connected via a silicone
pad was selected as the heat sink, whose heat capacity was
designed according Cth = PT ∆t ∆Ths
for a temperature swing
of ∆Ths = 10 K after an average transistor power loss of
PT = 2 W over ∆t = 200 s. Due to the positioning close to
the transistor, a temperature swing of ∆Ts = 10 K is already
achieved for PT = 1.5 W.
C. Calibration Measurement
To calibrate the calorimetric measurement setup, several
known transistor conduction loss steps are carried out and the
temperature step responses of the sensor are recorded. For
this purpose, a constant current is applied via the turned-on
HS and LS transistors. The average losses can be calculated
electrically via the calibration transistor current Id,C and
the voltage drop across the two semiconductors Vds,C using

456

4W
101
Zth,s-a / (K/W)
∆ Ts(200s) / K
0W
100
∆t = 200 s
10-1
100 101 102
Time / s
(a)
Fig. 6. Time-dependent thermal impedance measurement for various power
dissipations and derived calibration curve.
PT = PT,hs + PT,ls = Vds,C Id,C . Based on this calibration
measurements, unknown losses in switching operation can
then be calculated by evaluating the temperature step response.
Previous transient calorimetric soft-switching measurements
are based on a simplified thermal model as shown in Fig. 5a
[2], [6]–[8]. Assuming a large thermal capacitance Cth,s−a , a
linear increase of the sensor voltage can be expected after a
settling time of several seconds. Since a comparably small
heat sink must be used for the low power dissipation in
this measurement setup, the dynamic transient response can
no longer be neglected. The thermal behavior must therefore
be recorded as time-dependent such as in the calorimetric
driver and dead time optimization from [9]. By measuring the
sensor voltage using an oscilloscope, a high time resolution
is ensured, which enables the thermal impedance Zth,s−a to
be measured. Fig. 5b shows the underlying thermal equivalent
circuit diagram. The thermal impedance Zth,s−a measured for
half bridge (c) for power losses from 0 W to 4 W can be seen
in Fig. 6a. Based on the thermal step responses, the calibration
characteristic ∆Ts = Zth,s−a (∆t)PT can be derived for any
∆t. Fig. 6b shows the calibration characteristic curve for
∆t = 200 s of half bridge (c). Due to the precise measurement
of the thermal impedance, measurement times well below
200 s can be achieved. For a sufficient temperature swing, the
thermal capacity of the heat sink may have to be adjusted.
For power dissipations smaller than 1 W, non-linearities were
observed in the thermal impedance measurement. Since a
linear thermal system is expected the non-linearity probably
results within the temperature measurement. However, since
this non-linearity is included in the calibration characteristic,
the influence on the results can be minimized.
D. Power Loss Measurement
To determine the frequency-dependent soft-switching losses,
the total transistor losses for switched triangular currents of
different frequencies with equal peak currents are measured.
Since a temperature measurement during operation is not
possible due to EMC, the switching takes place over the
pre-defined duration ∆t without temperature measurement.
A few milliseconds after switching operation, the sensor
temperature Ts settles and can be measured. Together with the
ambient temperature Ta recorded for t < 0 s, the temperature
25 swing ∆Ts is determined. Using the calibration characteristic
∆Ts (PT ) the total losses are calculated. Fig. 7a shows the
20
frequency-dependent total losses for different DUTs, DC link
15
voltages and switching currents. A linear dependency of the
10 total losses on the frequency is shown in each case. Since
5 the frequency generator is limited by 100 × 106 pulses in the
0
maximum duration, no switching frequencies above 500 kHz
0 2 4 were considered. The measuring accuracy was determined
PT / W approximately with an error of ±0.05 K for the temperature
(b) sensor, a relative error of 2 % for the differential probe and a
relative error of 1 % for the current probe (see Fig. 7a).
E. Parasitic Heat Sources
A large parasitic heat source within the insulation box is
the driver circuit. In order to calculate its influence for the
loss measurements, the temperature swing ∆Ts for switched
operation without load was determined frequency dependent.
Moreover, electrical measurements of the driver losses showed
only a small influence of the load. Before determining the
transistor loss, the parasitic influence of the driver circuit can
be taken into account for the measured switching frequency
by subtracting the temperature swing of the driver circuit
without load upfront. The parasitic influence of the DC link
capacitance Cdc,2 is neglected due to the relatively low losses.
F. Soft-Switching Energy
The soft-switching energy can be determined by linear
approximation of the frequency-dependent switching losses.
Since the division into conductive and switching losses, how-
ever, does not provide an ideal line through the origin, the
switching energies were determined from the slope of the
linear approximation of the total losses (see Fig. 7b). Dead
times during switching operation were set to the duration
of the soft recharging of the output capacitance based on
the electrically measured switching transitions. Corresponding
losses can therefore be neglected. Even in real operation of the
target application, the dead time can not be significantly further
optimized. Remaining losses are thus added to the switching
losses and are included in the switching energy calculation.
The conductive losses can be calculated with the effective
triangular current and the forward resistance according to
2
PT = 2Rds,on I∆,rms the current and temperature dependent
forward resistance Rds,on is determined by the current and
voltage measurements of the calibration measurement for
different temperatures and currents and can be approximated
for pulsed operation. Due to the small temperature swings of
∆Ts,max = 30 ◦C, however, a change of less than 3 % relative
to the minimum measured Rds,on remains. Since only small
conduction losses occur in comparison to the total losses, the
influence of the current and voltage dependency off Rds,on on
the calorimetric measurement of the soft-switching energies of
these DUTs is small.
III. T RANSISTOR S WITCHING E NGERGY B ENCHMARKING
Fig. 7b shows the switching energies approximated from
the calorimetric measurements for soft-switching operations
457

3 1,3A
PT / W
2 400V
1
0 SiC (c) 400V
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
f SW / kHz
(a)
Fig. 7. Total transistor losses determined by calorimetric measurement for various DUTs and operating points (a). Derived switching energies for the half
bridge for different DUTs and operating points (b).
(ZVS) for the three DUTs for different switching currents
and different DC link voltages. The switching energies in-
clude the turn-on and turn-off energies for both the HS and
LS transistors. Compared to the results from [6] for larger
semiconductors with larger output capacitance, the switching
losses are reduced further. In addition, these results also
suggest an exponential relationship between switching current
and switching energies. In addition to the strong current
dependence, a high dependence on the DC link voltage is also
visible. The advantage of the increased blocking voltage of SiC
can be used for higher DC link voltages, but is purchased with
significantly increase in losses. Overall, the switching energies
for the soft-switching of the GaN half bridges investigated
are lower than for the analyzed SiC half bridge. For the
GaN half bridge with integrated driver the lowest losses
could be determined despite increased output capacitance and
lower Rds,on . The increased switching losses at 400 V and
1.3 A for the GaN (a) semiconductors, which were determined
at higher frequencies compared to the 3 A and 7 A values,
are particularly noticeable. Based on these results, it can be
assumed that by measuring switching energies at different
switching frequencies, the effect of the dynamic on-resistance,
in particular of GaN power transistors can be shown. Despite
similar operating points for the GaN (b) semiconductors, this
behavior does not occur with this transistor. In principle,
however, changes in total losses due to dynamic on-resistance
should be visible. A more detailed investigation in this regard
requires more measurement points over a larger frequency
spectrum.
IV. C ONCLUSION
Calorimetric power loss measurements were performed to
compare the soft-switching losses of various GaN and SiC
high voltage power transistors for the target application of
a 150 W ac/dc charger. Due to the low transistor losses of
this power class, the thermal measurement setup and previous
calorimetric measurement methods had to be adjusted. By
placing the temperature sensor close to the transistor and
calibrating it to the thermal impedance of the power elec-
GaN (a)
200V 6
3,0A 400V
GaN (b) 5
7,0A
4
ESW / µJ
SiC (c)
400V 3
650V 2
1
0 SiC (c) 650V
400 450 500 550 GaN (b) 400V
GaN (a) 400V
GaN (a) 200V
(b)
tronic system, the switching energies for the DUTs could
be determined for different operating points. The parasitic
influence of the driver circuit was taken into account to
allow for a application-oriented analysis without large half
bridge layout adjustments being necessary. The calorimetric
switching energy results suggest that besides the comparison
of the transistors for the target application also a further
investigation of the dynamic Rds,on effect might be possible.
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