Thermal-First Evaluation of SiC MOSFET and Si IGBT in a Bidirectional Non-Isolated Half-Bridge DC–DC Converter

International Journal of Thermal Engineering

© 2025 by SSRG - IJTE Journal

Volume 11 Issue 3

Year of Publication : 2025

Authors : Nuha Adnan Al-Obaidi

10.14445/23950250/IJTE-V11I3P101

How to Cite?

Nuha Adnan Al-Obaidi, "Thermal-First Evaluation of SiC MOSFET and Si IGBT in a Bidirectional Non-Isolated Half-Bridge DC–DC Converter," SSRG International Journal of Thermal Engineering, vol. 11,  no. 3, pp. 1-8, 2025. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.14445/23950250/IJTE-V11I3P101

Abstract:

Thermal limits—not efficiency alone—ultimately define how much power a bidirectional DC–DC converter can safely handle. This paper takes a thermal-first look at a non-isolated half-bridge built with a SiC MOSFET (SCT50N120) and a Si IGBT (IKY150N65EH7) at 25°. Instead of summing probe losses, total loss is reconciled from port powers and measures how much of it actually loads the heatsink through a sink-share factor β. From the measured sink and junction temperatures, an estimation of the physical sink-to-ambient resistance R and the hot-junction loss share ⍺. A single R per hardware family explains both buck and boost with near-zero error: 0.63K/W for the MOSFET rig and 0.43K/W for the IGBT rig. Normalized results rank thermal severity by junction rise per kilowatt: MOSFET boost 55.6 (worst), MOSFET buck 45.6, IGBT boost 2.12, and IGBT buck 0.73. With Tj, target=100, MOSFET boost has the smallest extra-loss headroom (=5.6W), while IGBT buck has the largest (=1.66kW); none of the cases reached device limits within 600s. The findings identify reverse power flow as the SiC bottleneck and point to practical fixes: reduce and, tune dead time, and use synchronous freewheeling to cut diode and switching stress.

Keywords:

Thermal Analysis, Junction Temperature, Sink-to-Ambient Thermal Resistance, Bidirectional DC–DC Converter, SiC MOSFET, IGBT, Port-Power Reconciliation, Normalized Thermal Metric.

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