The paper describes first results of 6.5 kV SiC PiN diode modules which are designed as neutral point valves for medium-voltage power inverters rated for 1000 A. The power module consists of 4 AlN DCB substrates soldered on an AlSiC base plate. Each DCB is equipped with 20 SiC PiN diodes operating in parallel. The total active area of all 80 diode chips is 5.68 cm². At the rated current of 2 x 500A the forward voltage drops from 4.1 V at room temperature to 3.9 V at an averaged junction temperature of 125°C. The switching experiments show a very low reverse recovery charge of about 30 µC only. The conduction loss is comparable to the corresponding 6.5 kV silicon diode whereas the dynamic loss is marginal with respect to the forward conduction loss if the switching frequency is held below 10 kHz.
Characterization of SiC power module for high switching frequency operation
