SiC in action in half bridge topology

 STDES-SICGP4 reference design

Fast and easy performance evaluation of STPOWER SiC MOSFETs

The STDES-SICGP4 reference design allows evaluation of the switching and thermal performance of power SiC MOSFETs in a HiP247-4 (four-lead) package in half-bridge topology. The MOSFETs are controlled by isolated gate drivers that are supplied by isolated DC-DC converters.

The design includes the necessary elements to implement a double pulse testing (DPT) environment and explore silicon carbide operation in buck or boost configuration. The final system requires an external inductor, a power source, a load, an auxiliary supply, and PWM signals. Board comes with an external coaxial shunt connector.

Key features

  • Half-bridge structure assembled with power SiC MOSFETs in an HiP247-4 package
  • Half-bridge driven by the STGAP2HS galvanic isolated gate driver optimized for SiC MOSFETs
  • Isolated gate drivers supplied by an isolated fly-buck converter based on the L6986I
  • Preset +18 V/-3 V supply voltage for output stage of isolated gate drivers
  • Possibility to set a specific gate voltage, positive and negative level
  • Possibility to set the gate resistor
  • Low inductance sense resistor
  • Prepared for a coaxial shunt resistor for a higher bandwidth of current measurement
  • 1 kV max. DC input/output voltage
  • 69 A Input current level peak (duration up to 100 μs)

Application examples

 Industrial Power Supply Industrial Power Supply

 

Recommended resources

This document shows an example of a switching energies test using DPT, as well as measured waveforms and resulting calculations

 

The STDES-SICGP4 is a testing platform reference design developed to test the high-speed switching performance of ST silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs. The platform implements a half-bridge configuration suitable for HiP247-4 packages.

 

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