Date of Graduation

5-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Electrical Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Zhong Chen

Abstract

As engineers constantly seek to make solar power systems smaller, cheaper, and more efficient, technological enhancements in the electronics that run them are required. One of the most fundamental electronic components of any solar system is the inverter, which takes DC current from the solar cell and turns it into AC current that is supported by the grid. This is done with metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs). Through more advanced MOSFET technology, inverters can switch at a higher frequency, increasing efficiency and reducing size and cost.

MOSFET performance can be enhanced by swapping the traditional silicon substrate with silicon carbide. Silicon carbide MOSFETs pose a variety of advantages over traditional silicon MOSFETs, including better temperature stability and higher voltage and current tolerance. A higher inverter frequency is key to increased efficiency, but this increases operating temperature. Thus, silicon carbide is desirable for use in inverters. However, improvements are still needed to fully realize a fully silicon carbide solar system future.

This paper explores the basics of solar inverters and power MOSFETs. We explore the physics behind why silicon carbide is superior to silicon in power applications and discuss various test parameters used to characterize MOSFETs. We obtain laboratory data to test various characteristics of silicon carbide MOSFETs and compare this to data of silicon MOSFETs to compare advantages and disadvantages. This paper’s results show that silicon carbide-based MOSFETs are more stable at high temperatures compared to silicon-based MOSFETs, but they exhibit higher gate leakage current compared to their silicon counterparts, indicating that there is still room to improve silicon carbide technology in the future.

Keywords

Silicon carbide; inverter; solar power; MOSFET; characterization

Download

Share

COinS