PERGAMON

Solid-State Electronics 43 (1999) 677681

Letter

Oscillations during inductive turn-o in rectiers

K. Mayaram a, *, C. Hu b, D.O. Pederson b
a b

School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA Received 11 March 1998; accepted 1 August 1998

Abstract The voltage waveform during unclamped reverse recovery of pin diodes under an inductive load may exhibit oscillations during, not after reverse recovery. This phenomenon has been observed both experimentally and using coupled circuit and device simulations. A simple equivalent circuit model is used to explain the existence of these oscillations. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction The reverse recovery of pin rectiers is an important aspect of power semiconductor circuits not only because it impacts circuit speed, but also because it aects power loss and inductive voltage spike generation. Several authors have analyzed the problem and proposed analytical or SPICE subcircuit models that can be used to determine the reverse recovery [17]. However, none of these papers have addressed the prediction of the peak reverse voltage that appears across the diode during turn-o. This is an important consideration in the design of snubber circuits used to dissipate the energy stored in the circuit inductance. The turn-o process is complicated since there is a strong interaction of the device dynamics with the circuit. Other approaches for this problem have used device simulators such as PISCES [8], as in [9, 10] or coupled circuit and device simulators [1113]. When the peak reverse voltage is close to the breakdown voltage of the diode, then oscillations may be observed during unclamped reverse recovery. This is a phenomenon that until now has not been reported in the literature for power devices. Diodes biased in the breakdown regime show a negative resistance due to transit time eects [14, 15]. Thus, one can expect an os-

cillatory behavior during the unclamped recovery of the diode. However, the diode is not continuously biased into the breakdown region and driven by a sinusoidal source as in [14, 15], therefore, this behavior is expected to be dierent. In this paper, we examine oscillations that have been observed during unclamped reverse recovery of pin diodes. These oscillations are seen in experimental devices as well as coupled circuit and device simulations. The simulations help in an understanding of the underlying process responsible for these oscillations. A simple equivalent circuit model is proposed to explain this phenomenon. It is shown that the phenomenon is closely related to that of a relaxation oscillator in that a capacitor is repeatedly charged and discharged.

2. Analysis of voltage waveforms Experimental reverse recovery data for the inductive turn o of a pin diode is shown in Fig. 1. This data demonstrates the presence of oscillations during the turn-o process in addition to the larger oscillations at the end of the turn-o process. To gain an understanding of this phenomenon we have made use of a coupled device and circuit simulator, Medici [16], and an equivalent circuit model is proposed to explain the oscillations.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-509-335-6373; fax: +1509-335-3818; e-mail: karti@eecs.wsu.edu

0038-1101/99/$ - see front matter # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 0 3 8 - 1 1 0 1 ( 9 8 ) 0 0 2 6 9 - X

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Fig. 1. Experimental diode current and voltage under inductive turn-o with dI/dt = 300 A/ms. Note the presence of oscillations in the diode voltage.

For simulating the reverse recovery, an inductor is connected in series with the pin diode and the input voltage is stepped from a forward bias, Vf , to a reverse bias, Vr. For the examples presented in this paper, the p +nn + diode is modeled as an one-dimensional device with an n-region doping of 1 1014 and length of approximately 23 mm. The simulated device has an area of 0.25 cm2, a reverse saturation current of 2.5 mA, and a reverse breakdown voltage of 425 V. The reverse

recovery current and voltage waveforms, from simulations, for a dI/dt of 100 A/ms are shown in Fig. 2(a). Oscillations are observed during the second phase of the turn o and are shown in greater detail in Fig. 2(b). These oscillations can be explained by means of a simple equivalent circuit model for the recovery process. In Fig. 3, the simulated circuit and the equivalent circuit for the diode during reverse recovery are shown. The inductor and voltage source are replaced

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Fig. 2. (a) Simulated diode current and voltage from coupled circuit and device simulations. The current and voltage are shown as a function of time for inductive turn-o with dI/dt = 100 A/ms. For these simulations Vf =0.8 V, Vr= 50 V, and L = 0.5 mH. (b) Simulated diode current and voltage as a function of time for inductive turn-o with dI/dt = 100 A/ms shown on an expanded scale. Oscillations are observed in the diode voltage during the reverse recovery. Five dierent time instants are marked.

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Fig. 3. The circuit used for simulations and an equivalent circuit model to explain the oscillations under inductive turn-o of the diode.

by a current source IS that provides a current waveform as shown and Igen (V) is a nonlinear voltagedependent current source. This equivalent circuit is valid only after the i-region of the rectier is depleted, i.e., when a large voltage, V, appears across the diode or t>TA. C is the depletion-region capacitance. The current source Igen(V) models the current ow due to avalanche carrier generation in the i-region. When the reverse voltage is less than the breakdown voltage, Igen(V) is zero and is nonzero only under breakdown conditions. This current is a conduction current since it is due to free carriers generated by the avalanche multiplication process. The dierence between IS and Igen is responsible for charging and discharging the capacitor C and determines its voltage V(t). The capacitor current, Ic, is a displacement current which is negative when the capacitor is being charged to a negative voltage and positive when the capacitor is being discharged. For the initial part of the turn-o, t < T1 in Fig. 2(b), the current Igen is zero and the current IS charges the capacitor, whereby the reverse voltage across the diode continues to increase. The simulated conduction and displacement currents for the diode are shown in Fig. 4(a and b), respectively, for ve dierent time instants, T0, T1, T2, T3, and T4. These time instants are identical to those marked in Fig. 2(b). It is seen that at T0<T1, the conduction current in the i-region is zero and the i-region current is a pure displacement current. When the voltage exceeds the breakdown voltage, Igen increases rapidly due to the large number of carriers generated by the avalanche multiplication process, e.g., at time instants T1 and T2. This current is large and discharges the capacitor, leading to a decrease in the diode voltage. This is conrmed by examining the current components at T1 and

Fig. 4. (a) Conduction current as a function of position for the ve time instants shown in Fig. 2(b). (b) Displacement current as a function of position for the ve time instants shown in Fig. 2(b).

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T2 in Fig. 4. After breakdown occurs, the conduction current increases and the displacement current becomes a large positive value. During this interval the capacitor is discharged. The discharging of the capacitor causes the diode voltage vVv to drop whereby the conduction current Igen decreases (time instant T3 in Fig. 4(a)). Once the diode voltage goes below the breakdown value, Igen becomes zero (as seen from Fig. 4(a), the conduction current is zero at T4). Thus, the very eect that caused the voltage to decrease, i.e. Igen, disappears. Since the diode current (IS) is still nonzero, the capacitor charges up again, leading to an increase in the reverse voltage across the diode. This cycle of charging and discharging the capacitor repeats resulting in several cycles of oscillation. The number of oscillation cycles depends on how long the second phase of the reverse recovery is. The longer it is, the greater the number of oscillation cycles. 3. Conclusions Oscillations in the voltage waveform observed in the second phase of reverse recovery during inductive turn o of a pin diode are explained using a coupled circuit and device simulator and an equivalent circuit model. This model provides additional insight into the reverse recovery of pin diodes. Acknowledgements The authors thank Mr. R. Locher, Mr. K. Sassaman, and Mr. S. Sapp of National Semiconductor for discussion of the oscillations during the reverse recovery and for use of the tester. They also thank TMA for providing the device simulator Medici. This work was supported by SRC Grant No. 82-11-008. References
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