Power Device Characterization
Converter design depends on device data that datasheets do not fully provide: how much energy each switching event costs under real operating conditions, and how quickly that heat reaches the cooling system. Device characterisation produces both, from configuring the laboratory equipment and test conditions to turning recorded signals into device data.
Double Pulse Test
A jointly built double-pulse test platform, with a modified test board, carried a SiC measurement campaign of more than 450 test points across voltage, current, gate resistance and temperature. Waveform post-processing extracts turn-on and turn-off energies, slew rates and reverse-recovery quantities, complemented by static I–V and C–V measurements. For GaN devices, a half-bridge double-pulse test board was designed.
Read the double pulse test project
Thermal Characterization
The thermal resistance of a packaged GaN device, about 0.2 K/W, was measured using a temperature-dependent resistance on the chip as its thermometer and a purpose-designed six-seat cooling plate. Earlier work measured the transient thermal impedance of a SiC MOSFET and extracted its Cauer thermal network.
Read the thermal characterization project
GaN Current Capability
The same packaged GaN device was tested for current capability by stepping the drain current and tracking the junction temperature through the calibrated on-chip resistance, with separate calibrations for the gate off and on.
Read the GaN current capability test
The measured characteristics feed Semiconductor Device Modelling and Converter Design Optimisation. Power Device Reliability Testing is a separate area of work.