____________________________________________________

Understanding the short circuit protection for silicon

carbide MOSFETs

Silicon Carbide (SiC) MOSFET has become the potential substitute of Silicon (Si) IGBT for various
applications such as solar inverter, on board and off board battery charger, traction inverter, etc.
Comparing with Si IGBT, SiC MOSFET has more stringent short circuit protection requirements. To make
the most use of SiC MOSFET and ensures a robust system operation, a fast and reliable short circuit
protection circuit is needed. Different characteristics of SiC MOSFET and Si IGBT will be discussed. Three
short circuit protection methods will be illustrated and compared. The requirements of short circuit
protection for SiC MOSFETs will be summarized. TI’s UCC217xx family, a single channel isolated gate
driver for IGBT and SiC with advanced protection feature, can be used in various system designs to
protect the switch from all types of overcurrent and short circuit faults. The best in-class fast protection
and high noise immunity improves the versatility of system design and robustness of the system.
higher VDS. The drain current keeps increasing along
1 Characteristics of SiC MOSFET with the increasing Vds. The device will be destroyed
and Si IGBT before reaching the transition point. These
characteristics make the short circuit protection for SiC
The key to make the best utilize of the SiC MOSFET is MOSFETs very different than IGBT.
to fully understand the device characteristics. The
different characteristics of SiC MOSFET and Si IGBT
have impact on their short circuit protection schemes. 2 Short Circuit Protection Methods
Comparison
Comparing with IGBT which has similar blocking
voltage and current rating, SiC MOSFET has smaller The short circuit protection is important to
chip area, which makes the parasitic capacitance ensure a robust system and best utilize the
smaller than IGBT and increases the intrinsic switching device. A qualified short circuit protection circuit
speed. However, the smaller chip area means the SiC should realize a fast detection and shut down
MOSFET die has lower thermal dissipation capability. the device without false trigger. Three short
During short circuit conditions, the surge current circuit protection schemes which are commonly
generates a significant amount of joule heating and the used today will be analyzed and compared,
die can be destroyed in a short period of time without including desaturation detection, shunt resistor
enough capability to dissipate the heat. With smaller sensing scheme and senseFET current sensing
die size, the surge current capability of SiC MOSFET scheme. The desaturation detection circuit is
is lower than that of IGBT. shown in Figure 1.
VDD
The output characteristics of SiC MOSFET and IGBT
are different too. IGBT typically works in the saturation
region during the normal ON state. When a short
circuit happens, the collector current IC increases and DESAT RBLK DHV
goes through a sharp transition from the saturation Fault
+
region to the active region. The collector current gets
self-limited and becomes independent of VCE. CBLK
Consequently, the increase in IGBT current and hence
+
power dissipation gets self-limited. VDESAT
t
On the other hand, SiC MOSFET works in the linear
region during normal ON operation. During a short
circuit event, the SiC MOSFET enters the saturation Figure 1. Desaturation Detection Circuit
region. Different than that of an IGBT, SiC MOSFET
has a larger linear region. The transition from linear
region to saturation region happens at significantly The circuit is consisted by a resistor, a blanking
capacitor and a diode. When the device turns
on, a current source charges the blanking
capacitor and the diode is conducted. During
normal operation, the capacitor voltage is

SLUA863A – January 2018 – Revised March 2019 Understanding the short circuit protection for silicon carbide MOSFETs 1
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clamped at the forward voltage of the device. The senseFET current sensing scheme is
When short circuit happens, the capacitor shown in Figure 3. The senseFET is normally
voltage is quickly charged to the threshold integrated in the power module, connecting in
voltage which triggers the device shutdown. The parallel with the main device to scale down the
capacitor charging time is called the blanking device current. The scaled down current is then
time, which is calculated as: measured by an accurate shunt resistor. The
C u V DESAT detection time is short as the sensed current is
BLK synchronous with the device current. As the
t BCAP
I CHG (1)
senseFET is integrated in the power module,
low noise will be generated due to the small
For IGBT, the desaturation threshold voltage is parasitic inductance. Although this scheme has
normally set around the transition voltage, as many advantages, a power module with
the current can be virtually limited afterward for senseFET is required, which increase the
IGBT to withstand longer period of time. It system cost.
needs more attention to design desaturation
circuit for SiC MOSFET. The blanking time
designed for IGBT is too long to protect SiC
MOSFET. On one hand, the transition voltage
of SiC MOSFET is normally very high so the
current cannot be limited. With the preferred
+
short circuit shutdown time less than 2 µs, the OC Fault
desaturation threshold voltage needs to be set
+
lower. On the other hand, fast switching speed VOCTH CFLT RS
t
of SiC MOSFET generates noise during turn on
transition. The short circuit detection time
should be designed long enough to avoid the
false trigger, which makes the desaturation Figure 3. SenseFET Current Sensing Scheme
circuit design challenging for SiC MOSFET.
The shunt resistor sensing scheme is shown in
Figure 2. A small resistor is connected in series 3 Summary
in the power loop to sense the current. This
scheme is straight forward and can be flexibly SiC MOSFET is a promising substitute for IGBT
adopted in any system. High precision resistor to achieve a more compact and efficient
and fast ADC are needed to guarantee the system. A short circuit scheme for SiC
accuracy of the signal and detection time. The MOSFET should be evaluated from the
drawback of this method lies in the power loss. following aspects: fast response time, low
In high power system, high current generates power loss, high accuracy, high noise immunity
large power loss on the shunt resistor. In low and low cost. Efforts should be made from the
power system, larger resistance is needed to protection circuits, gate driver and PCB layout
guarantee the accuracy of the sensing signal, to improve the overall performance. UCC217XX
which also generates loss and reduces family has the best in-class overcurrent and
efficiency in low power applications. short circuit protection feature. With the short
detection time and fault reporting time, the gate
driver can shut down the IGBT and SiC
MOSFET module promptly after fault happens,
and report the fault to the isolated input side.
The UCC217XX family supports all three
OC Fault
+ detection schemes above, which makes the
driver versatile to various system designs. The
+
VOCTH CFLT
driver provides a reliable protection for
t RS
overcurrent and short circuit fault, and increases
the robustness of the system.

Figure 2. Shunt Resistor Current Sensing Scheme

2 Understanding the short circuit protection for silicon carbide MOSFETs SLUA863A – January 2018 – Revised March 2019
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Revision History
NOTE: Page numbers for previous revisions may differ from page numbers in the current version.

Changes from Original (January 2019) to A Revision .................................................................................................... Page

• Added additional detail to the abstract and summary regarding the UCC217xx family. ......................................... 1

SLUA863A – January 2018 – Revised March 2019 Revision History 3

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