Performance potential of low-voltage power MOSFETs in liquid-nitrogen-cooled power systems

The performance potential of a power MOSFET in cryogenic power electronic systems is discussed. Based on a simple analysis and the measured performance of scaled silicided 30-V power MOSFETs, it is shown that an order of magnitude improvement in on-state resistance can be achieved by cooling to liquid-nitrogen temperature. This performance improvement results in an order of magnitude improvement in optimum power conversion frequency for a given die size, a factor of 2 reduction in die size at a given conversion frequency, and a factor of 3 reduction in total power loss for switched-mode power converters operated at 77 K.>