The Switching Benefits Derived from Using SiC

Silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs are able to deliver much more impressive switching characteristics than their silicon-based equivalents. Not only can they enable greatly increased speeds to be supported, but the power losses that directly relate to switching operations are dramatically less too.

The accelerated frequencies attained (which are an order of magnitude better than conventional silicon IGBTs) and the improved efficiencies subsequently derived from this are due to the intrinsic properties of SiC. Thanks to their faster turn-on and turn-off times, plus the shorter period spent in the Miller plateau, the losses that directly relate to switching operations are dramatically less for SiC MOSFETs. This means that the amount of accompanying heatsinking needed will be lower. Also the passive components employed will be markedly smaller in size. The upshot of all this is that switching implementations based on SiC will not only deliver better performance, they will also take up less space and have lower peripheral component costs. It thus makes the investment needed to migrate to wide bandgap much more justifiable.  

Toshiba’s unique ‘SiC Snacks’ concept provides engineers and procurement managers with information on the attributes of SiC technology that are going to be most relevant to the projects they are involved in.

There are two that deal specifically with switching. The first, which is about how to accentuate switching performance, can be downloaded here: