Search

This paper deals with an active gate drive (AGD) technology for high-power insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBT's). It is based on an optimal combination of several requirements necessary for good switching performance under hard-switching conditions. The scheme specifically combines together the slow drive requirements for low noise and switching stress and the fast drive requirement for high-speed switching and low switching energy loss. The gate drive can also effectively dampen oscillations during low-current turn-on transient in the IGBT. This paper looks at the conflicting requirements of the conventional gate drive circuit design and demonstrates using experimental results that the proposed three-stage AGD technique can be an effective solution. Index Terms: Active gate drive, gate drive circuit, gate resistor, insulated gate bipolar transistor switching transient

The gate turn-off (GTO) thyristor has the highest voltage and current rating among the semiconductor power switches used extensively today. This paper documents the use of an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) to improve switching performance of a GTO in a cascode switch. The IGBT-gated GTO-cascode switch features simple drive requirement, fast switching, robustness, and overcurrent protection. The cascode switch was applied in a quasi-resonant buck converter and simulated on a computer using PSPICE. Results indicate that IGBT-gated GTO-cascode switches are promising candidates for high-power and high-frequency applications.

The switching performance of an IGBT module depends upon the drive circuit characteristics and external dc loop inductance. This paper discusses the influence of these parameters on switching losses, diode recovery, switching voltage transients, short circuit operation, and dv/dt induced current. The paper is tutorial and identifies trends. It is intended as an aid to the circuit designer, to help him apply the IGBT module to best advantage.

A physics-based model for the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) is implemented into the widely available circuit simulation package IG-SPICE. Based on analytical equations describing the semiconductor-physics, the model accurately describes the nonlinear junction capacitances, moving boundaries, recombination, and carrier scattering, and effectively predicts the device conductivity modulation. In this paper, the procedure used to incorporate the model into IG-SPICE and various methods necessary to ensure convergence are described. The effectiveness of the SPICE-based IGBT model is demonstrated by investigating the static and dynamic current sharing of paralleled IGBTs with different device model parameters. The simulation results are verified by comparison with experimental results.

Unlike minority carrier semiconductor devices, e.g., MOSFET's that are voltage controlled, majority carrier elements, e.g., bipolar transistors and GTO's, are current or charge controlled. To turn such a device on or off, a certain amount of charge has to be injected or extracted from the gate/base. If this is to be done quickly, very fast current rise and fall times are necessary. The gate drive discussed in this paper achieves extremely fast turn-on times due to a current pulse applied to the gate. The gate/base current rise time is only a function of the turn-off time of a MOSFET, resulting in extremely fast rise times. The fundamental limits of the new drive are pointed out, including minimum off-time and maximum on-time. A loss analysis is also carried out. Experimental results verify the performance of the gate drive.