Alexakis, Petros (2017) Reliability of wide bandgap semiconductor devices under unconventional mode conduction. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The use of power electronics is increasing in an exponential form. The need of power devices to be faster, block higher voltages and reduce their losses is leading to a fundamental change in the device architecture and choice of material. Gallium nitride and Silicon carbide are the materials of choice and commercial devices are available. Diamond and gallium oxide are materials that are considered for the future and they will push the boundaries of power electronics even further. There are well developed tools that can simulate the behavior of a power device is a very accurate way and they can calculate losses, turn on and turn off times and the over behavior of the device during switching. These tools are usually very complex and difficult to learn. They also cannot provide very quick results and they heavily depend on the amount of computational power that is available to the user. Due to their complexity they can only calculate a few maybe a couple of switching events before they run out of computational memory. This thesis is trying to solve this problem by using simple state space analysis and using a lot simpler equations and computational methods to predict the behaviour of the device. The simplicity of these calculations can give faster results that is very helpful in a lot of cases. Also tools that calculate the temperature of the power devices have been created again using simpler mathematical equations that can evaluate the device temperature. So a fast, reliable and simple way of estimating the device behavior has been created.

Another aspect that has been covered in this thesis is the reliability of power devices under unconventional conduction. A number of devices have been tested under avalanche mode conduction and an extensive comparison has been made between device architecture, MOSFET vs IGBT, Si vs SiC, Repetitive vs single avalanche events. Also these tests have been conducted in different ambient temperatures so the effect of temperature has been investigated thoroughly as well.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	T Technology > TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Power electronics -- Materials, Metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors, Power electronics -- Computer simulation, Metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors -- Computer simulation, Wide gap semiconductors, Silicon carbide, Insulated gate bipolar transistors, State-space methods
Official Date:	July 2017
Dates:	Date Event July 2017 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	School of Engineering
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Alatise, Olayiwola M.
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	xiii, 233 leaves : illustrations, charts
Language:	eng

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