PD1000A Power Device Measurement System for Advanced Modeling

 Introduction

The hybrid-electric and electric vehicle (HEV/EV) market is growing rapidly. Increasing vehicle electrification in the automotive market brings with it new challenges in design and manufacturing. Many HEV and EV manufacturers are migrating their power-conversion designs to wide bandgap (WBG) devices, such as Silicon-Carbide (SiC) and Gallium-Nitride (GaN), to achieve higher efficiency (extended range) and higher power in smaller, lighter, and cooler (less heat) packages. However, there are significant concerns about making sure these new designs are reliable and safe.

For wide bandgap devices, traditional tools don’t work

Relying on traditional semiconductor time-domain analysis tools and simple lumped-sum models for circuit simulation will not produce reliable, real-world results for WBG devices. While WBG switching frequencies may only be in the hundreds of kHz, what designers might not realize is WBG device’s edge (on/off) speeds are can be can be ten to one hundred times faster than traditional silicon devices and result in frequency components in the 100s of MHz. Traditional semiconductor models do not contain the device’s parasitic characteristics, which react to these high frequencies, and therefore cannot accurately predict conditions that are key to the safety and reliability of the circuit. A few examples of such conditions are in-rush currents, overshoots, ringing, and switching times. Without these conditions properly modeled, results may have inaccurate power estimates, undiscovered EMC issues, reliability issues if device margins are not met, or even a non-functional prototype. All these result in increased development time, costs, and potential loss of market opportunity.

Keysight’s Solution

Keysight is partnering with industry leaders in the HEV/EV power-conversion market to help them transition smoothly towards the use of WBG devices in their designs. As a result of these relationships, Keysight has developed a state-of-the-art modeling suite of power circuit simulator tools that allow WBG device designers to easily create models never before possible. The test suite, which consists of curve-tracing, s-parameter, and double-pulse tester hardware, takes measurements from actual WBG devices and uses advanced modeling software to build sophisticated WBG device models that are exclusive to Keysight. These models can then be used in Keysight’s Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software to simulate and analyze the effects that high frequency components have on the reliability and EMI of the design. Changes in design can be made before the first prototype, saving time and costs by eliminating unnecessary design cycles.