This paper addresses and evaluates the temperature dependence performance of silicon carbide (4H-SiC) based insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) using two dimensional numerical computer aided design tool (i.e., Atlas TCAD from Silvaco). Using identical set of device physical parameters (doping, thicknesses), simulated structure was first caliberated with the experimental data. A minority carrier life time in the drift layer of 1.0 – 1.6 µs and contact resistivity of 0.5 - 1.0 x 10-4 Ω-cm2 produces a close match with the experimental device. A set of n type IGBT structures were then numerically simulated to extract the conduction losses for various blocking voltage classes. An on-resistance first decays with temperature (i.e., increased in ionization level, and increase in minority carrier life time), stays nearly constant with further increase in the temperature (may be all carriers are now fully ionized and increase in carrier life time is compensated with decrease in the carrier mobility) and finally increases linearly with temperature (>450 oC) due to decrease in the carrier mobility. Compared with Si based IGBTs, numerical simulation predicts lower VCEON and RON values for 4H-SiC based IGBTs for higher voltage classes and hence potential for achieving smaller conduction losses for SiC based IGBTs.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.