See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/343549031

POWER LOSS CALCULATION FOR IGBT and SiC MOSFET

Preprint · August 2020

DOI: 10.37896/JXAT12.08/2637

CITATIONS READS
0 510

2 authors, including:

Geetha K.
RR Institute of Technology
14 PUBLICATIONS   10 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Geetha K. on 21 March 2022.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology ISSN No : 1006-7930

POWER LOSS CALCULATION FOR IGBT

and SiC MOSFET
Geetha K1, Sreenivasappa B V2
Center for Research in Power Electronics
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Presidency University, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Abstract- : The efficiency of any system is mainly depended on power loss incurred in the devices used in it. In power
converter circuits the main contribution for power loss is by the power switches used for converting signal. In this paper
an attempt is made to describe the method available to find the power losses in converter circuit due to IGBT and SiC
MOSFET. It is observed in the literature that the conduction losses for IGBT is lesser than MOSFET with same voltage
and current rating whereas the switching losses are greater in IGBT compared to MOSFET. The calculations performed
in the paper shows that SiC MOSFET supersedes the performance of IGBT and MOSFET and hence best suitable for high
power and high switching frequency application.

Keywords – Power switch, Power loss, Conduction loss, Switching loss.

I. INTRODUCTION
Converters are the circuits used to convert one form of power into another form. The main converters used in power
industries are DC-DC converter, DC-AC converters known as inverters, AC – DC Converters known as rectifiers and
AC-AC converters. Fig 1. Shows a typical converter circuit. It contains mainly two parts. One switching converter and
the other part is switching signal generator. Switching converters are generally made up of power switches connected
in Half Bridge or Full Bridge form. These switches are controlled by a switching sequence generated in switching signal
generator circuit. Hence, a power converter system has an input signal which can be either DC or AC depending on the
application and switching signal used to control the power switches. The power switches that are popularly used in
these power converter are IGBT and MOSFET. When we take simple bipolar junction transistor it is observed that the
input impedance of BJT is not sufficient. The input impedance of the MOSFET is very high compared to BJT making
it superior than BJT device. Whereas Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor embeds the input characteristics of MOSFET
as it is a gate driven device. But yet IGBT switching speed is less compared to MOSFET devices. But the main
advantage of IGBT over MOSFET is its conduction loss. Hence both IGBT and MOSFET devices has created its own
place in the power electronics domain. But in recent years SiC MOSFET has shown its performance that replaces IGBT
and MOSFET. The SiC MOSFET drift resistance is 1/100th of its Si MOSFET equivalent [1]. In this paper calculation
of conduction losses and switching losses for IGBT and SiC MOSFET is performed in a Full Bridge inverter application.

Fig.1: Power Converter

In the rest of the paper, Section II gives brief introduction of Full Bridge inverter. Section III Explores equations
used to find the conduction mode losses of IGBT and SiC MOSFET. Section IV presents switching loss equations for
IGBT and SiC MOSFET. Section V includes theoretical calculations of conduction losses and switching losses for an

Volume XII, Issue VIII, 2020 Page No: 378

Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology ISSN No : 1006-7930

IGBT and SiC MOSFET with same voltage and current rating. Section V presents a comparison of IGBT and SiC
MOSFET along with concluding remarks.

II. FULL BRIDGE INVERTER

Fig 2 shows a typical Full Bridge inverter circuit. It has two arms each includes two power switches [2]. The inverter
circuit is controlled by pulse width modulated switching signal. This can be bipolar sine pulse width modulation,
unipolar sine pulse width modulation or hybrid sine pulse width modulation. The efficiency of USPWM and HSPWM
is greater than BSPWM. But the common mode characteristics of BSPWM is better compared to USPWM and
HSPWM. The average power loss in the power switch usually includes conduction loss 𝑃𝑐𝑚 , blocking loss 𝑃𝑏𝑚 and
switching loss components. Switching loss intern includes turn on loss 𝑃𝑠𝑜𝑛 and turn off loss𝑃𝑠𝑜𝑓𝑓 . Hence an
expression for average total power loss in the switch is given by (1). Blocking mode losses of switches is less
compared to conduction losses and switching losses, hence we neglect blocking losses in a switch.

Fig. 2. Full Bridge Inverter

III. CONDUCTION MODE LOSS

The general expression for conduction loss in a switch is given by (2). Where 𝑉𝑜 is zero current voltage drop of the
switch and 𝑅𝑜 is on state resistance of the switch. In the inverter, the power switch operates either at a low frequency
or at a switching frequency of 𝑓𝑠 . The duty cycle of the switch operating at a high frequency is expressed as in (3) and
the low frequency as in (4). Average and rms value of current flowing through the switch is given by (5) (6) while the
instantaneous current of the inverter is as in equation (7).

𝑃𝑎𝑣𝑔 = 𝑃𝑐𝑚 + 𝑃𝑏𝑚 + 𝑃𝑠𝑜𝑛 + 𝑃𝑠𝑜𝑓𝑓 (1)

2
𝑃𝑐𝑚 = (𝑉𝑜 𝐼𝑎𝑣𝑔 + 𝑅𝑜 𝐼𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑠 ) (2)
𝑑𝑢𝑡𝑦𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒𝐻𝐹_𝑐𝑚 = 𝑀 sin 𝑤𝑡 (3)
𝑑𝑢𝑡𝑦𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒𝐿𝐹_𝑐𝑚/𝑏𝑚 = (1 − 𝑀 sin 𝑤𝑡) (4)
𝜋
1
𝐼𝑎𝑣𝑔 = ∫ 𝑖(𝑡) 𝑑𝑢𝑡𝑦𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒 𝑑𝑤𝑡 (5)
2𝜋 0
𝜋
2
1
𝐼𝑟𝑚𝑠 = ∫ 𝑖 2 (𝑡) 𝑑𝑢𝑡𝑦𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒 𝑑𝑤𝑡 (6)
2𝜋 0

Volume XII, Issue VIII, 2020 Page No: 379

Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology ISSN No : 1006-7930

𝑖(𝑡) = 𝐼𝑚 sin 𝑤𝑡 (7)

With all these basic equations the conduction losses for IGBT and MOSFET at low and high frequency can be
found. For IGBT the on state resistance is denoted as Rce and zero current voltage drop of the switch is mentioned as
Vt. Hence for IGBT after simplifying the equation's the conduction loss at high frequency and low frequency is found
to be as in equation (8) and (9) respectively. Where M is Modulation index of PWM signal.
𝑀 2
2𝑀
𝑃𝑐𝑚𝐻𝐹𝐼𝐺𝐵𝑇 = 𝐼𝑚 𝑉𝑡 + 𝐼𝑚 𝑅𝑐𝑒 (8)
4 3𝜋
1 𝑀 2
1 2𝑀
𝑃𝑐𝑚𝐿𝐹𝐼𝐺𝐵𝑇 = 𝐼𝑚 𝑉𝑡 ( − ) + 𝐼𝑚 𝑅𝑐𝑒 ( − ) (9)
𝜋 4 4 3𝜋
Similarly for MOSFET the on state resistance is denoted as Rds. While, zero current voltage drop is small. Hence,
conduction mode loss equations for MOSFET at high and low frequency can be written as equation (10) and (11)
respectively [3] [4].

2
2𝑚
𝑃𝑐𝑚𝐻𝐹𝑀 = 𝐼𝑚 𝑅𝑑𝑠 (10)
3𝜋
2
1 2𝑚
𝑃𝑐𝑚𝐿𝐹𝑀 = 𝐼𝑚 𝑅𝑑𝑠 { − } (11)
4 3𝜋

IV. SWITCHING LOSSES

Switching losses of power switches depends on switching time and reverse recovery losses. There are few methods
available to find the switching losses of power devices. While the simplest equation that can be used to find the power
for comparing the switching losses of IGBT includes using energy loss during on state and off state directly from the
device datasheet. The equations that can be used to find the switching losses during turn ON and turn Off of IGBT is
given by equation (12) and (13) [5]. Where Eon is the total energy loss during switch on time, Eoff is the total energy
loss during switch off time and fs is the switching frequency.
𝑃𝑆𝑜𝑛 = 𝐸𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑠 (12)
𝑃𝑆𝑜𝑓𝑓 = 𝐸𝑜𝑓𝑓 𝑓𝑠 (13)
In MOSFET also, the power loss can be found by using the equations, ie. (12) and (13). But in case of IGBT E on and
Eoff is specified in the data sheet itself. Whereas for MOSFET it is required to find the energy loss by using other
parameters given in datasheet. Hence, switch on and Switch off power loss for MOSFET is given by equation (14)
and (18) respectively. The parameters in the equation are found by using equations (15), (16) and (17) for switch on
and equation (19), (20) and (21) during switch off time. The detailed procedure for using these equations is given in
[3]

𝐼 (𝑡𝑑𝑜𝑛 +𝑡𝑟 )
𝑃𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑀 = 𝑉𝐷𝐷 𝑓𝑠 { 𝑑𝑜𝑛 2
+ 𝑞𝑟𝑟 } (14)
𝑡𝑓𝑣1 +𝑡𝑓𝑣2
𝑡𝑟 =
2
(15)
𝐶𝐺𝐷1
𝑡𝑓𝑣1 = (𝑉𝐷𝐷 − 𝑅𝐷𝑆𝑜𝑛 𝐼𝐷𝑜𝑛 ) 𝑅𝐺 𝑉𝑑𝑟 − 𝑉𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑒
(16)
𝐶
𝑡𝑓𝑣2 = (𝑉𝐷𝐷 − 𝑅𝐷𝑆𝑜𝑛 𝐼𝐷𝑜𝑛 ) 𝑅𝐺 𝑉 − 𝑉𝐺𝐷2 (17)
𝑑𝑟 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑒

Volume XII, Issue VIII, 2020 Page No: 380

Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology ISSN No : 1006-7930

𝐼 (𝑡𝑑𝑜𝑓𝑓 +𝑡𝑓 )
𝑃𝑠𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑀 = 𝑉𝐷𝐷 𝑓𝑠 { 𝑑𝑜𝑓𝑓 2
} (18)
𝑡𝑟𝑣1 +𝑡𝑟𝑣2
𝑡𝑓 = 2
(19)
𝐶𝐺𝐷1
𝑡𝑟𝑣1 = (𝑉𝑃𝑉 − 𝑅𝐷𝑆𝑜𝑛 𝐼𝐷𝑜𝑛 ) 𝑅𝐺 (20)
𝑉𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑒
𝐶
𝑡𝑟𝑣2 = (𝑉𝑃𝑉 − 𝑅𝐷𝑆𝑜𝑛 𝐼𝐷𝑜𝑛 ) 𝑅𝐺 𝑉 𝐺𝐷2 (21)
𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑒

V. CALCULATIONS OF CONDUCTION AND SWITCHING LOSSES FOR AN IGBT AND SIC MOSFET FROM DATASHEET
To calculate the total average power loss in IGBT and SiC MOSFET devices from the data sheet a typical power
switches from Infineon [6] are used. Two range of switches are selected. In the first case the IGBT and SiC MOSFET
with high rated voltage of 1200V with rated current of 26-30A is used. In the second case IGBT and SiC MOSFET of
voltage rating 600V-650V with rated current 20A is selected. For an inverter assuming maximum current flow is equal
to rated current of power switches all the calculations are performed. The conduction mode loss at high frequency and
low frequency and switching loss in the IGBT and SiC MOSFET is calculated by using the above equations and listed
in Table 1. For finding conduction mode loss of IGBT Rce resistance has to be calculated from the output characteristics
of IGBT. In this paper a typical characteristics with VG = 17V is used to find Rce value and the same is been mentioned
in the table. For SiC MOSFET switching loss calculation, to get accurate results one can use all the equations
mentioned and the procedure given in [4]. Now to find out typical power loss at rated voltage and current the values
of various switching time parameters are directly taken from the device datasheet and equation (14) and (18) are used
to find out the losses. Also, for SiC MOSFET the reverse recovery loss is negligible. So one can approximate qrr equal
to zero while calculating turn ON loss.

Table 1. Typical Power loss in IGBT and SiC MOSFET [6]

Power Switch IGBT SiC MOSFET

PART Number IGW15N120H3 IKD10N60RF IMZ120R090M1H IMZA65R107M1H
Rated Maximum Voltage (V) 1200V 600V 1200V 650V
Rated Maximum Current (A) 7A 20A 26 20
Zero current voltage drop (V) 2.3 2.2 NA NA
On state resistance (Ω) 1/18 1/11.5 0.09 0.107
Tdon (ns) - - 5.4 6.6
Typical tr (ns) - - 3 7.4
Typical tdoff (ns) - - 11.5 12.2
Typical tf (ns) - - 11 6.4
Idoff (µA) - - 0.5 1
Eon (mJ) 1.1 0.19 - -
Eoff (mJ) 0.45 0.16 - -
Conduction Loss (W) at high 21.12 15 10 7.3
frequency
Conduction Loss (W) at low 11 7.7 4 3.3
frequency
Switching Loss (W) 31 27 2.62 1.82

VI. CONCLUSION
This paper presented a simple method of calculating power losses in most popularly used power switches such as
IGBT and SiC MOSFET. It is found in literature that the on state resistance of the IGBT is very less compared to
MOSFET hence the IGBT conduction mode losses are comparatively less. At the same time energy loss during turn
ON and turn OFF period of IGBT is more than MOSFET. These difference yields high switching loss in IGBT
compared to MOSFET. Thus, one can conclude that, as conduction mode losses are less in IGBT, it can be used at

Volume XII, Issue VIII, 2020 Page No: 381

Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology ISSN No : 1006-7930

low switching frequency and if the switch has to be operated at high frequency then it is beneficial to use MOSFET.
In full bridge inverter, in the hybrid sine pulse width modulated switching technique two switches works at low
frequency while the other two at switching frequency. Hence, one can use IGBT for the two switches operating at low
frequency and to use MOSFET for the switches that are operating at high frequency. This will optimize the power
losses in the Full Bridge inverter. But in SiC MOSFET as on state resistance is considerably reduced, it can be seen
from Table 1 that the conduction loss of the SiC MOSFET is much lesser than IGBT of same ratings. And also the
reverse recovery losses in the SiC MOSFET is negligible hence the overall Switching loss of SiC MOSFET is lesser
than Si MOSFET. Thus SiC MOSFET is replacing IGBT and Si MOSFET in most of the power converter applications.

REFERENCE
[1] R. Lai and K. D. T. Ngo, “A PWM Method for Reduction of Switching Loss in a Full-Bridge Inverter,”
October, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 326–332, 1995.
[2] Michael O'Neill, Applications Engineering Manager, CREE, Durham, N.C. "Silicon Carbide MOSFETs
Challenge IGBTs", https://www.powerelectronics.com/technologies/discrete-power-semis/article/21861356/silicon-
carbide-mosfets-challenge-igbts
[3] B. Ji, J. Wang, and J. Zhao, “High-efficiency single-phase transformerless PV H6 inverter with hybrid
modulation method,” IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 60, no. 5. pp. 2104–2115, 2013, doi:
10.1109/TIE.2012.2225391.
[4] D. Graovac and M. Pürschel, “MOSFET Power losses Calculation Using the Data- Sheet Parameters,” 2006.
https://www.infineon.com
[5] N. Rao and D. Chamund, “Calculating Power Losses in an IGBT Module,” Appl. Note AN6156-1, no.
September, pp. 1–8, 2014, https://www.dynexsemi.com/Portals/0/assets/downloads/DNX_AN6156.pdf
[6] Data Sheets from infineon https://www.infineon.com

Volume XII, Issue VIII, 2020 Page No: 382

View publication stats