Selection of the most appropriate semiconductor on the DC-DC buck converters by multi-criteria decision making methods

Abstract The selection of suitable semiconductor is one of the most important factors affecting the performance of the power electronics circuits. The general characteristics of the circuit such as voltage, current, and switching frequency limit the switch selection. When choosing semiconductors that meet these constraints, the criteria such as switching speed, losses, cost etc. are be taken into consideration. The importance weights of the criteria may vary depending on the expert’s experience and the application conditions. Therefore, to make the best decision, it is necessary to make a choice based on all criteria. In this paper, the most suitable semiconductor selection for a 36–12 V DC-DC buck converter has been made using the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods, MOORA and integrated AHP-TOPSIS firstly in the literature. GaN-transistor, IGBT and power MOSFET has been evaluated according to the four criteria. The consistency of the results obtained with both MOORA and the integrated AHP-TOPSIS methods demonstrates that these methods are successful in determining the most suitable semiconductor in power electronics applications where there is more than one option.