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In aerospace applications, it is important to have efficient, small, affordable, and reliable power conversion units with high power density to supply a wide range of loads. Use of wide-band gap devices, such as Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) devices, in power electronic converters is expected to reduce the device losses and needs for extensive thermal management systems in power converters, as well as facilitate high-frequency operation, thereby reducing the passive component sizes and increasing the power density. A novel hybrid SiC-GaN based full-bridge dc-dc buck converter with improved efficiency for high power applications will be presented in this paper. With the current device manufacturing technology, GaN devices can only handle breakdown voltages up to 650 V, while SiC devices can handle up to 1200 V. GaN devices exhibit remarkable switching performance compared to SiC devices.

In aerospace applications, it is important to have efficient, small, affordable, and reliable power conversion units with high power density to supply a wide range of loads. Use of wide-band gap devices, such as Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) devices, in power electronic converters is expected to reduce the device losses and need for extensive thermal management systems in power converters, as well as facilitate high-frequency operation, thereby reducing the passive component sizes and increasing the power density. A performance comparison of state-of-the art power devices in a 10 kW full-bridge dc-dc buck converter operating in continuous conduction mode (CCM) and at switching frequencies above 100 kHz will be presented in this manuscript. Power devices under consideration are silicon (Si) IGBT with Si antiparallel diodes, Si IGBT with SiC antiparallel diodes, Si MOSFETs, SiC MOSFETs, and enhancement-mode GaN transistors.