Thomas Alois Zoels

Diode snappiness from a user's perspective

This paper deals with reverse recovery and snappiness in high voltage PiN diodes as the ones currently used in high power electronics applications. It suggests a practical quantitative definition for the occurrence of snappiness and investigates unusual phenomena that might occur during reverse recovery.

Investigation on diode surge forward current ruggedness of Si and SiC power modules

This paper investigates the behavior of selected Si-PiN and SiC (BD-MOS & SBD) FWD in multichip power modules during current surge event conditions. Surges can occur in high power converters used for motor drives and grid connected systems. A novel testbench and testing procedure is introduced which allows fairly rapid type-test characterization of modules without the need to perform manual-intensive module characterization after each test. Based on the limited tests done so far, it can be seen that Si PiN diodes still retain an advantage as far as surge current limitation is concerned, followed by Mosfet body diodes in SiC with Schottky diodes in SiC at the last place. Experimental and manufacturer data are here combined into a transient thermal model which helps understand the destruction mechanisms.

Soft recovery diodes with snappy behavior

This paper illustrates several issues that a user of high voltage PiN diodes may encounter in actual application conditions. It shows that high-voltage power diodes require specifiable on-time prior to entering their reverse recovery phase and offers 1D device simulations and measurements taken on several actual high power diodes to illustrate and explain all the concepts introduced.