High Temperature Packaging and Pulse Testing of Parallel SiC Thyristors

For fast rise time, high peak current pulse power applications, Silicon Carbide (SiC) is ideal due to its ability to tolerate high localized temperatures generated during switching. Several 4 mm × 4 mm SiC Gate Turn-Off thyristors (GTOs) manufactured by CREE were evaluated. Testing for individual and paired devices was performed under both single and repetitive pulsing using variable pulse duration, ring-down capacitor discharge circuit. At 150 °C, maximum single shot currents as high as 3.2 kA have been shown for single devices at a 50% pulse width of 2 μsec while parallel devices have shown a maximum of 4.4 kA at 150 °C.