Lesson 2 of 7 · 50 minutes

Power switches

You will be able to

  • Read an on-resistance versus breakdown-voltage chart
  • Derive the loss-optimal die area of a hard-switched converter
  • Explain why bulk-doped diamond improves when hot
1 · Read
2 · Play

Pick the EV traction inverter. Raise the junction temperature from 27 °C to 250 °C and watch which materials cross their temperature limit, and how the silicon-to-diamond loss ratio changes.

Open the lab →
3 · Compute

The same physics in Python. Run it in your browser with Colab, or locally after pip install -e .

from adamas import converter

for m in ('Si', '4H-SiC', 'GaN', 'Diamond'):
    s = converter.material_switch(m, 1200, 800, 300, 20e3)
    print(f'{m:8s} {s.p_total_w:7.1f} W per switch')

s = converter.material_switch('Diamond', 1200, 800, 300, 20e3, measured='saha2022')
print('measured 2022 diamond device, scaled:', round(s.p_total_w, 1), 'W')
Open notebook in Colab
4 · Check
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