Silicon carbide power devices have developed rapidly in recent years, and they have the advantages of high breakdown voltage and high thermal conductivity. The performance of silicon carbide diodes as freewheeling diodes in pulse forming networks is studied by simulation and experiment, and compared with silicon diodes. The experimental results show that silicon carbide diodes are less resistant to surge currents than silicon diodes at room temperature. Both of them have weakened surge current capability at high temperatures, but the ability of silicon ultrafast recovery diodes to withstand surge currents is much lower.It can be predicted that at higher temperature, the silicon carbide junction barrier Schottky diode's surge current capability will exceed that of silicon fast recovery diodes.