2026/05/06 by Zhikang Shuai, Chenchen Fang, Wei Wang +4
Engineering · #Silicon Carbide Semiconductor Technologies #HVDC Systems and Fault Protection #Advancements in Semiconductor Devices and Circuit Design
paper · doi:10.1109/tpel.2026.3690919
Individual power semiconductor devices have limited current-carrying capacity, making them insufficient for high-current applications. Parallel connection is necessary to enhance the current handling capability of solid-state circuit breakers (SSCBs), but inevitably introduces current imbalance issues. The imbalanced dynamic currents during switching transients may cause uneven thermal distribution and potential device failure, posing a significant challenge for parallel applications. To address this challenge, this article proposes a simple active gate driver (AGD) to improve the current balance for silicon carbide junction field-effect transistors (SiC JFETs) in DC SSCBs. First, the principle of the AGD is based on current feedback control. Low-voltage p-channel JFETs and external gate capacitors are used to adjust gate voltage of SiC JFETs. Therefore, the switching speed of the parallel SiC JFETs can be changed to achieve current balance. Then, the turn-off process of the SSCB with proposed AGD is analyzed in detail, elucidating the critical role of external gate capacitors in current balance. Finally, for two paralleled SiC JFETs, the turn-off dynamic current imbalance is reduced from 18.4% to 4.7%. Furthermore, the proposed topology exhibits excellent scalability.