EE Faculty Colloquium by Prof. Kaushik Basu

Venue: MMCR, EE

Time: 4pm, 20 January 2023

Abstract:

Silicon Carbide MOSFETs (SiC MOSFETs) fall into wide band gap (WBG) power devices. These devices are commercially available in the voltage range of 600-3300V and compete with the state-of-the-art Si-insulated gate bipolar junction transistors (IGBTs). Superior material properties  of SiC MOSFET lead to smaller die sizes. This results in faster switching transients and lower switching loss. However, it excites device and circuit parasitic that may lead to prolonged oscillation, high device stress, spurious turn-on and EMI-related issues. So, the benefit of using SiC MOSFET as a power device comes with numerous design challenges resulting in slow commercial adaptation. It is predicted that the overall market share of WBG devices (SiC and GaN together) will be roughly 10% of the total market for power semiconductors by 2025. To overcome the design challenges and fully utilise the benefits of fast-switching SiC MOSFETs, a better understanding of switching dynamics is essential. However, the switching dynamics of SiC MOSFET are different compared to its Si counterpart due to the highly non-linear device characteristics and participation of circuit parasitic in the process. In this talk, we will discuss our recent work on developing an analytical model of the switching dynamics for hard and soft transitions of SiC MOSFET by simplifying the complex non-linear dynamics predicted by the behavioural model. The developed model, given the device-related parameters extracted from the data sheet, estimated or measured circuit parasitic, can predict lost switching energy, rate of change of device voltage etc., necessary for a successful power converter design through computation with sufficient accuracy. Based on this model a Python based interactive software tool has been developed. The results of this work are applied to two WBG-based advanced power converter development: A 3kW onboard charger for 2 Wheelers and a 200kW SiC-based inverter for high-bandwidth power amplifiers.


Speaker’s Bio:

Kaushik Basu received the BE. Degree from the Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpore, India, in 2003, the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India, in 2005, and the PhD degree in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, in 2012, respectively. He was a Design Engineer with Cold Watt India in 2006 and an Electronics and Control Engineer with Dynapower Corporation USA from 2013-to 15. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the IISc. He served as the Technical Program Committee Vice-Chair of IEEE ECCE 2019 and 2022. In 2019, he received the Prof. Priti Shankar Teaching Award from IISc. As a co-author, he received the Second Best Prize Paper Award from IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification in 2021.  He is IEEE senior member and is the founding chair of both IEEE PELS and IES Bangalore Chapter. He is an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, and Springer Journal of Power Electronics. His research interests include most aspects of Power Electronic converter design from a few kW to a few MW for applications ranging from space, grid integration of renewables and storage to fast charging of electric vehicles.