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Design and Evaluation of a Novel Hybrid SiC-GaN Based 2017-01-2032

Bidirectional Full-Bridge DC-DC Converter Published 09/19/2017

Nisha Kondrath
Villanova University

CITATION: Kondrath, N., "Design and Evaluation of a Novel Hybrid SiC-GaN Based Bidirectional Full-Bridge DC-DC Converter,"
SAE Technical Paper 2017-01-2032, 2017, doi:10.4271/2017-01-2032.

Copyright © 2017 SAE International

Abstract Introduction
Efficient, small, and reliable dc-dc power converters with high power In aerospace applications, it is important to have efficient, small,
density are highly desirable in applications such as aerospace and affordable, and reliable power conversion units with high power
electric vehicles, where battery storage is limited. Bidirectional density to supply a wide range of loads, including constant-current
full-bridge (FB) dc-dc converters are very popular in medium and loads [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]. Bidirectional full-bridge dc-dc
high-power applications requiring regenerative capabilities. Full- converters are very popular in medium and high-power applications
bridge topology has several advantages such as: that require regenerative capabilities [2], [4, 5, 6, 7]. Full-bridge
configuration has advantages such as (1) inherent galvanic isolation
• Inherent galvanic isolation between input and output as well as between input and output as well as high conversion ratio due to the
high conversion ratio due to the transformer with a turns ratio n. transformer with a turns ratio n, (2) reduction in passive component
• Reduction in passive component sizes due to the increase in sizes, since the inductor current frequency is twice the switching
inductor current frequency to twice the switching frequency. frequency, and (3) reduced voltage stresses on the low-voltage side
• Reduced voltage stresses on the low-voltage side switches and switches and current stresses on the high-voltage side switches.
current stresses on the high-voltage side switches. However, due to the high number of switches, device losses increase.
The efficiency, reliability, and size of the converter are heavily
However, due to the high number of switches, device losses increase. dependent on the switch characteristics and resiliency. To improve the
Use of wide-band gap (WBG) devices, such as Silicon Carbide (SiC) converter performance, it is imperative that the individual switch
and Gallium Nitride (GaN) devices, in power electronic converters has losses be minimized.
shown to reduce device losses and need for extensive thermal
management systems in power converters. SiC and GaN have Use of wide-band gap (WBG) devices, such as Silicon Carbide (SiC)
complementary properties. SiC devices offer superior thermal and Gallium Nitride (GaN) devices, in power electronic converters is
performance due to their high thermal conductivity and GaN devices expected to reduce the device losses and need for extensive thermal
offer superior switching performance due to their high carrier mobility. management systems, as well as facilitate high-frequency operation,
However, state-of-the-art commercially available GaN devices can thereby reducing the passive component sizes and increasing the
only withstand breakdown voltages up to 650 V, while SiC devices power density [3], [8, 9, 10]. The wide-energy band gap allows SiC
can handle up to 1700 V. Because of this shortcoming, GaN devices and GaN to operate at high-temperature, high-voltage, and high-power
cannot be used in power converters for high voltage applications, conditions. However, with the current device manufacturing
despite GaN’s capability to operate at high switching frequencies with technology, GaN devices can only withstand breakdown voltages up
high efficiency. This work aims to exploit both the high-voltage to 650 V, while SiC devices can handle up to 1700 V. SiC devices offer
capability of SiC devices and exceptional switching capability of GaN superior thermal performance due to their high thermal conductivity
devices in a novel hybrid SiC-GaN based bidirectional full-bridge and GaN devices offer superior switching performance due to their
dc-dc converter with improved efficiency, reliability, and power high carrier mobility. High thermal conductivity of SiC indicates that
density for high power applications. The proposed bidirectional it can dissipate heat easily, thereby reducing the need for excessive
converter rated at 5 kW will be designed and simulation results thermal management systems for high-power applications. Higher
obtained using LT Spice circuit simulator will be presented. electric breakdown field results in thinner drift region and higher
doping for a given voltage rating, reducing the on-resistance of the
devices and thus, increasing the system efficiency.
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A novel hybrid SiC-GaN based bidirectional full-bridge dc-dc VI,boost = VLV = 150 V and output voltage VO,boost = VHV = 540 V; which
converter for high power applications is proposed in this paper. This results in input current II,boost = ILV = P/VLV = 33.33 A and output
work aims to exploit both the high voltage capability of SiC devices current IO,boost = IHV = P/VHV = 9.25 A. During the buck-mode of
and exceptional switching capability of GaN devices in high-power operation, input voltage VI,buck = VHV = 540 V and output voltage
converters. A 5 kW bidirectional full-bridge dc-dc converter VO,buck = VLV = 150 V; which results in input current II,buck = IHV =
operating in continuous conduction mode (CCM) will be designed P/VHV = 9.25 A and output current IO,buck = ILV = P/VLV = 33.33 A. The
and simulated using LTSpice circuit simulator. Steady-state design procedure will be outlined in this section.
waveforms will be presented and compared with the converter using
SiC devices only.
Determine the Turns-Ratio n of the Transformer
The dc voltage transfer function for the converter operating in boost
Circuit Operation and buck modes are
A bidirectional full-bridge dc-dc converter is shown in Figure 1. In
the figure, let VLV be the low-side voltage, VHV be the high-side
voltage, n be the turns ratio of the transformer, L be the inductor, and (1)
CLV and CHV be the low-side and high-side filter capacitors,
respectively. A transformer with turns ratio n : 1 is used for isolation Table 1. Characteristics of the input dc bus [5].
between the input and the output sides.

and

Figure 1. Bidirectional full-bridge dc-dc converter circuit.

During the boost-mode of operation, power flows from the low- (2)
voltage side to the high-voltage side with VLV as the input voltage and
VHV as the output voltage. Bridge A with four switches S1, S2, S3, and respectively. Assuming values of M1 = [0.6,0.8] and M2 = [0.25,0.5],
S4 acts as a FB inverter and Bridge B with four switches S5, S6, S7, (1) and (2) will respectively yield n ∈ [2.88, 1.44] and n ∈ [1.8,3.6].
and S8 acts as a FB rectifier. For the buck-mode of operation, VHV is Choose n = 2. Therefore, the duty cycle required for boost-mode is
the input voltage and VLV is the output voltage with power flow from M1 = 0.722 and for buck mode is M2 = 0.277.
high-voltage side to low-voltage side. In this case, Bridge B acts as a
FB inverter and Bridge A acts as a FB rectifier. Let M1 be the duty
Determine the Required Value of Inductance L to
cycle of the primary switches S1-S4 during the boost-mode of
operation and M2 be the duty cycle of the primary switches S5-S8
Maintain CCM Operation
during the buck-mode of operation. Design equations for full-bridge The minimum value of inductance required to maintain CCM in the
dc-dc buck converter were presented in [1,6] and for full-bridge dc-dc boost mode is obtained as
boost converter were presented in [5]. For the bidirectional converter,
the inductor L must be chosen such that the converter maintains CCM
for both modes of operation and the capacitors CHV and CLV must be
chosen such that the output voltage ripple is maintained within limits. where the maximum peak-to-peak inductor current ripple is assumed
The design procedure for the bidirectional full-bridge dc-dc converter as ΔiLmax = 10 % of II,boost. The minimum inductance required to
operating in CCM will be outlined in the next section. maintain CCM in the buck mode is

Design
Input dc bus characteristics for aerospace applications as specified Therefore, minimum inductance required for bidirectional operation
and extrapolated from the DoD Interface Standards are given in Table is
1 [11]. To reduce aerospace vehicle weight by minimizing the
required conductor sizes, ± 270 V dc buses are being considered at
the input side. A bidirectional full-bridge dc-dc converter interface
with the nominal voltage VHV = 540 V and a 5 kW load with VLV =
150 V will be designed in this section. Let the switching frequency be Select L = 200 μH.
fs = 200 kHz. During the boost-mode of operation, input voltage
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Determine the Required Values of Filter Capacitors C

to Limit the Output Voltage Ripple
For the boost-mode of operation, the minimum required capacitance Considering the calculated voltage stresses on both high and
to limit the output ripple VrHV = 1% of VHV is low-voltage side switches, the following SiC and GaN MOSFETs
were considered:

• Cree C2M0025120D: VDS = 1200 V, ID = 90 A, rDS = 25 mΩ.

For the buck-mode of operation, the maximum capacitor ESR is • GaN Systems GS66508P: VDS = 650 V, ID = 30 A, rDS = 55 mΩ.

Datasheets for both devices are available on the manufacturer

websites [12], [13]. Commercially available GaN devices can only
Table 2. Summary of design equations for the bidirectional full-bridge dc-dc withstand breakdown voltages up to 650 V, hence cannot be used as
converter. primary side switches, especially with the transient voltage up to 660
V as seen in Table 1. Therefore, in high-voltage, high-power
applications, SiC devices will be the only choice. As seen in Table 2,
use of transformer with n > 1 in FB dc-dc buck converter results in
reduced voltage stresses for low-voltage side switches. To take
advantage of the superior switching performance of GaN devices and
improve the overall converter efficiency and switch utilization, GaN
transistors can be used as low-voltage side switches along with SiC
MOSFETs used as high-voltage side switches. To account for the
current stress, transients, and temperature variations, two GaN
devices need to be connected in parallel as one switch. A novel hybrid
setup with SiC devices on the high-voltage and GaN devices on the
low-voltage sides of the transformer (Hybrid SiC-GaN) to improve
converter efficiency is proposed in this paper.

Simulation Results
The designed a) SiC-GaN based and b) SiC based bidirectional FB
dc-dc converter was simulated at VHVnom = 540 V, M2 = 0.278, fs = 200
kHz, and RL = 4.5 Ω using LTSpice circuit simulator. Spice models
for Cree SiC power MOSFET C2M0025120D and GaN Systems
GaN transistor GS66508p were obtained from the manufacturers.
Simulation results for the designed bidirectional converter operating
in CCM using (1) Hybrid SiC and GaN devices and (2) SiC devices
only will be presented for both boost and buck modes of operation.
Passive components are assumed to be ideal in simulations.

Table 3. Summary of simulation results.

For a chosen value of rC = 20 mΩ, the minimum required capacitance
to limit the output ripple VrLV = 1% of VLV is obtained as

Select C = CHV = CLV = 100 µF.

Selection of Switches
Voltage and current stresses for switches S1-S4 are

and
Figures 2 and 3 show the relevant voltage and current waveforms
during the boost-mode of operation of the designed bidirectional
full-bridge dc-dc converter using hybrid SiC-GaN devices and SiC
Voltage and current stresses for switches S5-S8 are devices, respectively. The presented waveforms include output
voltage vO, output current iO, gate-to-source voltages vDS of S1, S3, S5,
and S7, drain-to-source voltages vGS of S1, S3, S5, and S7, drain
currents iD of S1, S3, S5, and S7, inductor voltage vL, and inductor
and
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current iL. The steady-state output voltage with VO = 536.8 V using

the hybrid setup and VO = 532 V using SiC devices only, as shown in
Figures 2(a) and 3(a). The hybrid setup yielded an improved
efficiency η = 99.49 %, compared to η = 98.6 % of the SiC based
converter. From Figures 2(b), (c), (d) and 3(b), (c), (d), it can be seen
that the voltage waveforms across the switches vDS and the inductor
vL exhibited much less ringing during the switching transitions for the
hybrid setup, thus reducing the switching losses and improving the
power quality compared to using SiC devices only. However, the
mismatch between the switching characteristics of GaN and SiC
devices resulted in high current spikes during the switching
transitions in the hybrid setup. This may become dominant at higher
switching frequencies and result in lower converter efficiency,
d. vGS (top), vDS (middle), and iD (bottom) for S5 and S7.
especially in high power applications.
Figure 2. Steady-state waveforms for hybrid SiC-GaN based bidirectional
full-bridge converter operating in the boost-mode.

a. vO (top) and iO (bottom).

a. vO (top) and iO (bottom).

b. vGS (top) for S1 and S3, vL (middle), and iL (bottom).

b. vGS (top) for S1 and S3, vL (middle), and iL (bottom).

c. vGS (top), vDS (middle), and iD (bottom) for S1 and S3.

c. vGS (top), vDS (middle), and iD (bottom) for S1 and S3.

Figure 3. Steady-state waveforms for SiC based bidirectional full-bridge

converter operating in the boost-mode.
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d. vGS (top), vDS (middle), and iD (bottom) for S5 and S7. a. vGS (top), vDS (middle), and iD (bottom) for S1 and S3.

Figure 3 (cont). Steady-state waveforms for SiC based bidirectional Figure 4. Steady-state waveforms for hybrid SiC-GaN based bidirectional
full-bridge converter operating in the boost-mode. full-bridge converter operating in the buck-mode.

a. vO (top) and iO (bottom). a. vO (top) and iO (bottom).

a. vGS (top) for S1 and S3, vL (middle), and iL (bottom). a. vGS (top) for S1 and S3, vL (middle), and iL (bottom).

a. vGS (top), vDS (middle), and iD (bottom) for S5 and S7. a. vGS (top), vDS (middle), and iD (bottom) for S5 and S7.

Figure 5. Steady-state waveforms for SiC based bidirectional full-bridge

converter operating in the buck-mode.
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frequencies. Interaction between SiC and GaN devices in this hybrid

environment needs to be further investigated to the improve the
converter performance at high switching frequencies.

References
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Contact Information
the switching transitions. This may become dominant athigher
switching frequencies and result in lower converter efficiency, Nisha Kondrath is with Department of Electrical and Computer
especially in high power applications. Soft switching techniques need Engineering, Villanova University, 800 E. Lancaster Ave., Villanova,
to be employed to reduce the switching losses at high switching PA 19085, nisha.kondrath@villanova.edu.
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Definitions/Abbreviations
WBG - Wide-band gap
Si - Silicon
SiC - Silicon Carbide
GaN - Gallium Nitride
CCM - Continuous conduction mode
MOSFET - Metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor
DoD - Department of defense

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