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Silicon Carbide Rectifiers Slide 5

The advantages of silicon-carbide material is that it offers the best in-class switching performance. There are some drawbacks of silicon-carbide material. One of those is a positive thermal coefficient, which means the higher the temperature, the higher the VF. If the current across the diode increases the forward voltage drop also increases. This can lead to some thermal runaway phenomenon when higher currents are applied to the diode. Shown on the graph is a comparison in blue at room temperature and in red with higher Vf at 125 degrees C. ST has mitigated this increase with a super barrier structure in their newer Silicon Carbide products. Overall it is easier to parallel these kind of diodes because of this positive thermal coefficient. So if the designer is limited in one specific product family to a twenty amp device, but they have applications for a higher current, designers can use multiple devices in parallel.

PTM Published on: 2014-09-30