Toward more energy efficient power converters

Wide bandgap devices, such as silicon carbide (SiC) metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET), are a critical element for making converters faster and more sustainable. This is because of their larger switching frequencies with smaller energy losses under a wide range of temperatures when compared with conventional silicon-based devices. However, calculating the parameters that determine how the electrical current in a MOSFET responds as a function of the applied voltage remains difficult in a circuit simulation. A better approach for fitting experimental data to extract the important parameters would provide chip manufacturers the ability to design more efficient power converters. Now, a team of scientists led by NAIST has successfully used the mathematical method called automatic differentiation (AD) to significantly accelerate these calculations.