Dr.-Ing. Patrick Hofstetter was awarded the ETG Literature Prize 2021
Patrick Hofstetter has been awarded the 2021 ETG Literature Prize for his work "Parasitic Turn-On of SiC MOSFETs - Turning a Bug into a Feature". The award ceremony took place in October 2021.
At the lectern is Dr.-Ing. Michael Schwan (Chairman of the Energy Technology Society in VDE (VDE|ETG), and in the background is Dr.-Ing. Patrick Hofstetter..
In his publication, Dr.-Ing. Patrick Hofstetter deals with the topic of
parasitic switching on of SiC MOSFETs in a half-bridge, as is common in
traction, for example, which is relevant today. SiC MOSFETs have been used
increasingly for several years and are replacing the previous Si IGBTs and
their anti-parallel Si diodes in many applications. The reasons are the
possibility of very fast and low-loss switching, as well as the ability to
conduct backwards and thus make the anti-parallel diode unnecessary. However,
the unwanted parasitic switching on of the switched-off SiC MOSFET of a
half-bridge leads to considerable challenges. Many publications therefore deal
with the analysis of parasitic turn-on or the avoidance of parasitic turn-on.
Dr.-Ing. Patrick Hofstetter is taking a completely different, new approach.
He shows that parasitic switching on can be used to reduce overvoltage at the recovery diode. As a result, SiC MOSFETs can be switched faster and losses reduced. The outstanding scientific contribution of the work lies in the pursuit of an unconventional approach and the comprehensive systematic investigation of the switching processes as well as the losses occurring at various, application-typical parameters. The publication thus makes a valuable contribution to the further use of SiC MOSFETs.
From 2017 to 2019, Dr.-Ing. Patrick Hofstetter conducted research at the Mechatronics research group at the University of Bayreuth. In a three-year research project dealing with silicon carbide (SiC) power electronics for urban mobility, he researched the switching optimisation, robustness and protection of SiC MOSFETs in traction converters. He processed the research results in his dissertation "High utilisation of silicon carbide field-effect transistors in traction converters", which was published in mid-2020. At the beginning of 2020, the award winner moved to the Siemens AG Large Drives Applications (LDA) department. Here he works in power component development with a focus on modular multilevel converters and the use of power semiconductors in various medium-voltage converters.
After passing his doctoral examination, Dr.-Ing. Patrick Hofstetter (l.) was symbolically presented a doctoral poster by Chair of Mechatronics Prof. Dr.-Ing. Mark-Matthias Bakran. The poster can be viewed on the Mechatronics homepage under Research/Promotions/Dr.-Ing. Patrick Hofstetter
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Mark-Matthias BakranChair of Mechatronics
Phone: +49 (0) 921 / 55-7801
Mail: bakran@uni-bayreuth.de
www.mechatronik.uni-bayreuth.de