I had covered power electronic Silicon Carbide(SiC) MOSFETs earlier in my posts. Very recently, I had to work on a project that needed Silicon Carbide diodes. Then I really started to appreciate the benefits of it and more folks should start using them.
SiC diodes as the name suggests are based on the semiconductor material Silicon Carbide and have many benefits compared with traditional Silicon diodes. SiC diodes have wide bandgap properties, which allow them to handle higher voltages, temperatures, and switching frequencies than their silicon counterparts. SiC diodes exhibit much lower forward voltage drop, low reverse leakage current and switching losses, which means less energy is wasted in heat(energy reductions up to 50%). Means higher efficiency. SiC diodes can switch on and off much faster because they have practically very low/nil reverse recovery charge(Read more about them in older posts). This means they perform better in applications like high-frequency switching power supplies. It can handle junction temperatures exceeding 175°C (even up to 200°C in some cases), whereas silicon diodes tend to degrade at high temperatures. It has higher thermal dissipation capabilities and hence can be made smaller in size for similar Si devices
Because of all the benefits above, they are perfect for high voltage/high current applications in EVs, Inverters, and power supplies. They are relatively new. If you’re designing systems that demand high efficiency and high-temperature performance, SiC diodes are absolutely worth exploring, just as I did when I decided to take the leap with them.
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