ABSTRACT: Silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs are widely used for their low losses, fast switching capability and remarkable thermal conductivity compared to their silicon (Si) counterparts. A major concern stems from reliability issues that prevent their wide adoption in power electronics applications. Condition monitoring of SiC devices in power converters has helped address the reliability issues by providing indications of potential failure. One of the most consistent failure indicators of degraded SiC MOSFETs is an increase of the gate leakage current. This presentation proposes a method of condition monitoring of the SiC MOSFETs via an external circuit that indirectly estimates the gate leakage current during operation. We present experimental results obtained with a prototype circuit to validate the proposed methodology.
