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Wide Bandgap Power Integrated Circuits and Sensors

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A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Physical Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 August 2023) | Viewed by 5754

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Stefan Moench

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Guest Editor

Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF, Tullastrasse 72, 79108 Freiburg, Germany
Interests: power electronics; energy conversion; GaN power ICs; energy efficiency

Dr. Tobias Erlbacher

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

PD Doctor, Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Systems and Device Technology IISB, Schottkystrasse 10, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
Interests: power semiconductor devices; integrated circuits; silicon capacitors

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to collect original and review articles on wide bandgap (WBG) power-integrated circuits (IC) and sensors in the ongoing transition from discrete power and sensor devices to fully integrated power circuits.

Wide bandgap power integrated circuits (IC) enable highly efficient, compact and low-cost power conversion in areas such as electromobility, renewable-energy conversion, chargers, robotics, etc.

Integrated sensors, readout circuits and interfaces can significantly increase the functionality of power ICs (closed-loop control, condition monitoring, etc.). Today’s WBG power technologies (SiC, GaN, Ga2O3, AlN, diamond, etc.) are mainly optimized for power switching or high frequency operation. This makes sensor integration challenging, limited by the availability of components constrained by the used power integration technology (limited availability of CMOS, feature size, temperature and dynamic effects, parameter instabilities, etc.).

External sensors for WBG power-integrated circuits can influence the performance of the power ICs (e.g., intrusive current sensing for control), and they are subject to increased requirements due to the improved switching characteristics of WBG power ICs (for example, fast voltage and current transitions or increased switching frequencies).

Potential topics include (but are not limited to):

WBG power devices and ICs and sensors, as well as sensor integration.
SiC, GaN, Ga2O3, AlN, diamond, etc. (WBG) power ICs and devices.
Internal/external sensors and readout circuits for/in power ICs.
Interfaces between power ICs and sensors.
Sensing of electrical (current, voltage, power, resistance, etc.) thermal (temperature, heat flow, calorimetric, power loss) optical, environmental and other quantities.
Analog, mixed-signal, digital, smart and AI-based approaches.
Close-loop control, protection and condition-monitoring.
Particularities from the power IC or sensor technology.
Extreme conditions and designs (high temperature, fast switching, high slew-rate, high-density, etc.).
Design, Technology, Process, Fabrication, Modeling, Simulation, Characterization, etc.
Bandwidth, power consumption, accuracy, sensitivity and specificity.
Recent progress, open challenges and future directions.
Potential applications.

Dr. Stefan Moench
Dr. Tobias Erlbacher
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

power integrated circuits
sensing
wide bandgap power electronics
gallium nitride
silicon carbide

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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8 pages, 3802 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

A Wideband True Time Delay Circuit Using 0.25 µm GaN HEMT Technology

by Jeong-Geun Kim and Donghyun Baek

Sensors 2023, 23(15), 6827; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23156827 - 31 Jul 2023

Viewed by 806

Abstract

This paper presents a wideband 4-bit true time delay IC using a 0.25 μm GaN HEMT (High-Electron-Mobility Transistor) process for the beam-squint-free phased array antennas. The true time delay IC is implemented with a switched path circuit topology using DPDT (Double Pole Double Throw) with no shunt transistor in the inter-stages to improve the bandwidth and SPDT (Single Pole Single Throw) switches at the input and the output ports. The delay lines are implemented with CLC π-networks with the lumped element to ensure a compact chip size. A negative voltage generator and an SPI controller are implemented in the PCB (Printed Circuit Board) due to the lack of digital control logic in GaN technology. A maximum time delay of ~182 ps with a time delay resolution of 10.5 ps is achieved at DC–6 GHz. The RMS (Root Mean Square) time delay and amplitude error are <5 ps and <0.6 dB, respectively. The measured insertion loss is <6.8 dB and the input and output return losses are >10 dB at DC–6 GHz. The current consumption is nearly zero with a 3.3 V supply. The chip size including pads is 2.45 × 1.75 mm². To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a true time delay IC using GaN HEMT technology. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wide Bandgap Power Integrated Circuits and Sensors)

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16 pages, 3636 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Three-Phase Motor Inverter and Current Sensing GaN Power IC

by Stefan Mönch, Richard Reiner, Michael Basler, Daniel Grieshaber, Fouad Benkhelifa, Patrick Waltereit and Rüdiger Quay

Sensors 2023, 23(14), 6512; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23146512 - 19 Jul 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2087

Abstract

A three-phase GaN-based motor inverter IC with three integrated phase current mirror sensors (sense-FETs or sense-HEMTs, 1200:1 ratio), a temperature sensor, and an amplifier is presented and experimentally operated. The three low-side currents are read out by virtual grounding transimpedance amplifiers. A modified summed DC current readout circuit using only one amplifier is also discussed. During continuous 24 V motor operation with space-vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM), the sensor signal is measured and a bidirectional measurement capability is verified. The measured risetime of the sensor signal is 51 ns, indicating around 7 MHz bandwidth (without intentional optimization for high bandwidth). The IC is operated up to 32 V on DC-biased semi-floating substrate to limit negative static back-gating of the high-side transistors to around −7% of the DC-link voltage. Analysis of the capacitive coupling from the three switch-nodes to the substrate is calculated for SVPWM based on capacitance measurement, resulting in four discrete semi-floating substrate voltage levels, which is experimentally verified. Integrated advanced power converter topologies with sensors improve the power density of power electronics applications, such as for low-voltage motor drive. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wide Bandgap Power Integrated Circuits and Sensors)

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Review

Jump to: Research

27 pages, 8928 KiB

Open AccessReview

Current Sensor Integration Issues with Wide-Bandgap Power Converters

by Ali Parsa Sirat and Babak Parkhideh

Sensors 2023, 23(14), 6481; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23146481 - 18 Jul 2023

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2376

Abstract

Precise current sensing is essential for several power electronics’ protection, control, and reliability mechanisms. Even so, WBG power converters will likely struggle to develop a single current-sensing scheme to measure various types of currents due to the limited space and size of these devices, the required high sensing speed, and the high electromagnetic interference (EMI) emissions they cause. Analysis of existing current sensors was conducted in such terms with the objective of understanding the challenges associated with their integration into WBG power converters. Since each of these requirements has different design tradeoffs, it is challenging to consider one specific method of current sensing to be perfect for all situations; thus, the possibility of developing novel methods to improve the performance of these single-scheme current sensors is further explored. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wide Bandgap Power Integrated Circuits and Sensors)

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