Improving the Short-Circuit Reliability in IGBTs: How to Mitigate Oscillations

Paula Diaz Reigosa, Francesco Iannuzzo, Munaf Rahimo, Chiara Corvasce, Frede Blaabjerg

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

In this paper, the oscillation mechanism limiting the ruggedness of insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) is investigated through both circuit and device analysis. The work presented here is based on a time-domain approach for two different IGBT cell structures (i.e., trench-gate and planar), illustrating the two-dimensional effects during one oscillation cycle. It has been found that the gate capacitance varies according to the strength of the electric field near the emitter, which in turn leads to charge-storage effects associated with low carrier velocity. For the first time, it has been discovered that a parametric oscillation takes place during the short circuit in IGBTs, whose time-varying element is the Miller capacitance, which is involved in the amplification mechanism. This hypothesis has been validated through simulations and its mitigation is possible by increasing the electric field at the emitter of the IGBT with the purpose of counteracting the Kirk effect.

Original languageEnglish
JournalI E E E Transactions on Power Electronics
Volume33
Issue number7
Pages (from-to)5603 - 5612
Number of pages10
ISSN0885-8993
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2018

Keywords

  • Insulated gate bipolar transistor
  • Short circuit
  • Gate oscillations
  • Parametric oscillation
  • Robustness
  • Kirk Effect
  • TCAD

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