Skip to main content

Optimizing Parallel SiC MOSFETs: Current Balancing Using PCB Sensors

Introduction

Silicon Carbide (SiC) MOSFETs are transforming power electronics, offering higher efficiency, faster switching speeds, and lower losses compared to traditional silicon devices. However, in high-power applications, multiple SiC MOSFETs are often connected in parallel to handle greater current loads.

A major challenge? Current imbalance.

When MOSFETs operate in parallel, even slight variations in device characteristics can lead to unequal current sharing, causing:
⚡ Overheating of certain devices
⚡ Reduced efficiency
⚡ Early device failure

To tackle this, researchers are now using PCB-based current sensors with peak detection techniques to actively monitor and balance current flow in parallel SiC MOSFETs.

                                                                           


Why Do Parallel SiC MOSFETs Need Current Balancing?

In theory, parallel-connected MOSFETs should evenly share current, but in reality, factors like:
šŸ”¹ Threshold voltage mismatch
šŸ”¹ Variations in internal resistance (Rds(on))
šŸ”¹ Differences in gate drive signals
šŸ”¹ Parasitic inductance in PCB layout

…can cause one MOSFET to carry more current than others, leading to overloading and failure.

Peak Detection Using PCB Sensors: A Smart Solution

Instead of using bulky, expensive current sensors, PCB-based sensors provide a compact, cost-effective way to monitor current in real time.

šŸ“Œ How It Works:
1️⃣ Embedded PCB traces act as current sensors, detecting voltage drops caused by flowing current.
2️⃣ A peak detection circuit captures transient current peaks during switching events.
3️⃣ This data is used to adjust gate drive signals or modify circuit design to ensure balanced current distribution.

Advantages of Using PCB Sensors for Current Balancing

✅ Compact & Low-Cost – Eliminates the need for expensive Hall-effect sensors or shunt resistors.
✅ High-Speed Response – Captures fast switching transients in SiC MOSFETs.
✅ Real-Time Monitoring – Enables adaptive gate control for active current balancing.
✅ Enhanced Reliability – Prevents overheating and extends device lifespan.

Applications in Power Electronics

šŸ”¹ EV Powertrains – Ensures balanced current flow in high-power inverters.
šŸ”¹ Renewable Energy – Improves efficiency in solar and wind power converters.
šŸ”¹ Industrial Drives – Enhances performance in motor control systems.

Conclusion

Using PCB-based current sensors with peak detection offers a game-changing approach to balancing current in parallel SiC MOSFETs. By ensuring equal current sharing, this technique helps maximize efficiency, reliability, and longevity in high-power applications.

As SiC technology continues to evolve, smart current monitoring solutions like this will be key to unlocking its full potential.

30th Edition of International Research Conference on Science Health and Engineering | 28-29 March 2025 | San Francisco, United States

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wiggling worms suggest link between vitamin B12 and Alzheimer’s

Worms don’t wiggle when they have Alzheimer’s disease. Yet something helped worms with the disease hold onto their wiggle in Professor Jessica Tanis’s lab at the University of Delaware. In solving the mystery, Tanis and her team have yielded new clues into the potential impact of diet on Alzheimer’s, the dreaded degenerative brain disease afflicting more than 6 million Americans. A few years ago, Tanis and her team began investigating factors affecting the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease. They were doing genetic research with  C. elegans , a tiny soil-dwelling worm that is the subject of numerous studies. Expression of amyloid beta, a toxic protein implicated in Alzheimer’s disease, paralyzes worms within 36 hours after they reach adulthood. While the worms in one petri dish in Tanis’s lab were rendered completely immobile, the worms of the same age in the adjacent petri dish still had their wiggle, documented as “body bends,” by the scientists. “It was an observa...
Post a Comment
Read more

‘Massive-scale mobilization’ necessary for addressing climate change, scientists say

A year after a global coalition of more than 11,000 scientists declared a climate emergency, Oregon State University researchers who initiated the declaration released an update today that points to a handful of hopeful signs, but shares continued alarm regarding an overall lack of progress in addressing climate risks. “Young people in more than 3,500 locations around the world have organized to push for urgent action,” said Oregon State University’s William Ripple, who co-authored “The Climate Emergency: 2020 in Review,” published today in Scientific American. “And the Black Lives Matter movement has elevated social injustice and equality to the top of our consciousness. “Rapid progress in each of the climate action steps we outline is possible if framed from the outset in the context of climate justice – climate change is a deeply moral issue. We desperately need those who face the most severe climate risks to help shape the response.” One year ago, Ripple, distinguished profess...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ancient Shell Sounds

Abandoned at the mouth of your shelter you quivered apprehensively at our approach, crying out to be held as we proclaimed the exception of your discovery. Sighing wearily as we consigned you to the dusty silence of our archives. But now When I hold you in my hands, I see the face of your purposefully speckled complexion. When I lift you to my ear, I hear the sound of an ancient sea lapping at your shores. When I place you at my lips, I feel the heartbeat of your creator pulsing to my breath. I close my eyes, as you call out to all that you have lost. The shell that was recovered from the Marsoulas cave in the Pyrenees of France (Image Credit: C. Fritz, MusĆ©um d’Histoire naturelle de Toulouse). This poem is inspired by recent research , which has discovered that a large seashell that sat in a French museum for decades is actually a musical instrument used around 18,000 years ago. In 1931, researchers working in southern France unearthed a large seashell at the entr...
Post a Comment
Read more