An Open Access Database of Power Diode Characteristics at Cryogenic Temperature

The development of power electronic converters operating at cryogenic temperatures is limited by the lack of data on electronic components outside the standard temperature range specified by manufacturers (typically above −65°C, i.e., 208 K). To fill this gap, the construction of an open access database of power electronic component characteristics at cryogenic temperatures is presented. As a first step, the focus is on the electrical characterisation of power diodes at both room (293 K) and liquid nitrogen (77 K) temperatures. We present a tailored experimental protocol that allows their I–V characteristics to be obtained in a reproducible manner at both temperatures. Additionally, we share the results obtained for more than 60 power diodes, having nominal current from a few amperes to several thousand amperes. We also analyse the variability among same‐reference diodes and the impact of repeated thermal cycling on a given diode. Finally, we demonstrate the practical usefulness of such database through a case study. We predict the performance (losses, efficiency) of a 1 kW single‐phase diode rectifier at 77 K using only the I–V characteristics of the diode from the database, and we show that it matches the performance experimentally measured on the corresponding prototype.