International Journal of Advance Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IJAEEE)

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Switching Loss Estimation of SiC MOSFET in LTspice

1
Mary Suja Antony, 2R.S. Praveen Raj
1,2
EEE Dept., MBCET, Trivandrum, Kerala, India

Abstract— Silicon carbide (SiC) is the most promising
material for future demands, especially in high voltage, high
temperature, high efficiency and high power density
operations. This paper consists of switching characteristic
study of 1200V, 35A SiC MOSFET using double pulse test
circuit in LTspice simulation platform. SiC spice model
given by the manufacturer is used in the LTspice software
tool to estimate the turn on and turn off loss of the device.
The test is carried out at 32°C and 125°C ambient condition
and the results are compared.
Keywords— SiC MOSFET, Double pulse test, LTspice,
Switching loss, characteristics, Turn on loss, Turn off loss,
temperature effects, band gap
I. INTRODUCTION
Presently, Si insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs)
are able to handle high voltage, over 5 KV and high
current over 1000 A, whereas the bipolar nature of the
device limits the switching frequency of converter
systems below 100 kHz and thus the efficiency of the
system. On the other hand, Si Metal-Oxide-
Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFETs),
although ideal for high-switching-frequency applications
up to the MHz, suffer from relatively high on-state
resistance and hence high conduction loss as the blocking
voltage increases, which virtually constrains the use of the
device in medium and low voltage applications less than
600 V. The general 150 °C limit of the maximum junction
temperature further blocks the use of Si devices in
high-power-density and high-temperature situations.
Silicon Carbide (SiC) is a compound semiconductor made
of equal parts silicon and carbon in a perfect crystal
lattice. The bonds between the carbon and silicon atoms in
SiC are stronger than the bonds between silicon atoms in
silicon. The wide energy band gap (3.3 eV) of SiC is one
of its main advantages. It leads to a higher critical field for
breakdown and a higher threshold for creation of soft
errors from ionizing radiation since higher energy is
needed to thermally create electron-hole pairs. Due to the
high electric breakdown field, SiC -based power devices
have high breakdown voltages. As a result, SiC-based
devices have several advantages over Si-based devices
such as reduced energy losses and high switching
frequency which assist to increase the efficiency and
reduce the converter weight and size. This is particularly
important for aerospace and military applications which
are highly sensitive to weight and size requirements.
[1][2][3]
MOSFET losses includes mainly switching loss (Turn on
and Turn off loss), conduction loss and reverse recovery
loss of diode. At turn-on time, the device current rises
from the negligibly small leakage current to the on-state
current while the device voltage falls from the off-state
voltage to small on-state voltage. This contributes to turn
on loss (Eon loss). At turn-off the device current falls from
the on-state current to small leakage current while the
device voltage falls from the constant voltage to the high
off-state voltage. This contributes to turn off loss (Eoff
loss). The turn-on and turn-off losses are proportional to
the switching frequency.

All these disadvantages of Si based semiconductor II. LTSPICE SIMULATION

devices is because of its narrow band gap. Si has a band
gap value of 1.1eV. Silicon has narrow band gap, so when
Turn on and Turn off loss is estimated for different
the temperature rises, there is an exponential increase in
voltages and current using Rohm make SCH2080KE
intrinsic carriers. This causes the value of undesired
(1200V, 35A) SiC MOSFET. Spice model given by the
leakage currents high and at even higher temperatures, the
manufacturer is used in the LTspice IV software tool to
intrinsic carriers make uncontrolled conductivity and it
estimate the switching loss. The spice model statement is
will overcome the semiconductor device operation. The
included in the spice directive list in LTspice. Double
same reasoning can be extended to the breakdown voltage
pulse test is used to analyze the switching characteristics
of a device. Si devices have reached their maximumof a device. Variable DC supply is used to estimate the
theoretical limits. Theoretically, wider band gap devices
switching losses of the device at different voltages. The
like SiC, GaN and Diamond has the potential to overcome
upper device acts as a freewheeling diode (gate and
the above mentioned issues. source terminals are shorted) for the inductive load of
860μH.
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 International Journal of Advance Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IJAEEE)
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Fig.1. Double Pulse Test circuit in LTspice

The first turn on pulse establishes the desired current Fig.3. Turn on loss of SiC MOSFET at 32 °C
value by building up the inductor current. The gate pulse
width of the switching device (M1) is adjusted to achieve
the desired current value (t = LI/V) for a particular
voltage. During the turn off pulse the inductor current
freewheels through the diode (M2). The energy loss in this
interval corresponds to the turn off loss of the device. In
the second turn on pulse the desired current flows through
the switching device (M1) for a very short duration of
time. The energy loss at this interval corresponds to the
turn on loss. Vds * Id integrated over time gives the energy
loss of the device. The test is carried out with 5Ω Gate
resistance at 32°C and 125°C ambient condition.

Fig.4. Turn off loss of SiC MOSFET at 32 °C

The test is repeated at 125°C and the corresponding turn

on and turn off loss is obtained.

Fig.2. Turn on and turn off power loss waveforms at

Vds=100V and Id=20A

III. LTSPICE SIMULATION RESULTS

The turn on and turn off loss of SiC MOSFET for

different drain to source voltages (Vds = 100 to 700V) and Fig.5. Turn on loss of SiC MOSFET at 125 °C
drain current (Ids= 10 to 35 A) is estimated. Energy loss in
μJ is plotted for different voltages and currents. There is
an exceptional decrease in turn off loss of SiC MOSFET
compared IGBT due to the absence of tail current. The
turn on and turn off loss increases in proportion to current.

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 International Journal of Advance Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IJAEEE)
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Fig.6. Turn off loss of SiC MOSFET at 125 °C
The turn on and turn off loss of SiC MOSFET at 32 °C
and 125 °C are compared. For SiC MOSFET, turn on loss
decreases and turn off loss increases as temperature
increases. As a result there is only a small change in
switching loss as temperature increases. This enables high
temperature operation of the converter in military and
industrial applications such as aviation, space exploration
and hybrid electrical vehicles.
Fig.7. Turn on loss comparison of SiC MOSFET at 32 and
125 °C
Fig.8. Turn off loss comparison of SiC MOSFET at 32
and 125 °C
IV. CONCLUSION
Switching characteristic study of 1200V, 35A SiC
MOSFET using double pulse test circuit is realized in
LTspice simulation platform. SiC spice model given by
the manufacturer is used in the LTspice software tool to
estimate the turn on and turn off loss of the device. The
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turn off loss of SiC MOSFET is exceptionally low
compared to IGBTs due to the absence of tail current.
Overall the switching losses of SiC MOSFET are very
low compared to Si IGBTS and MOSFETs. The test is
carried out at 32°C and 125°C ambient condition and the
results are compared. The turn on loss of SiC MOSFET
decreases as temperature increases and therefore the
switching loss changes only slightly as temperature
increases.
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[9] Daniel Foty, Daniel P. Foty, “MOSFET modeling TRANSACTIONS ON POWER

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