This article provides general information about IGBT power semiconductors and, in particular, provides explanations about component parameters and graphs in Bourns' IGBT data sheets available at www.
What is a high power IGBT?
High power IGBTs have gained popularity as switching components in medium-to-high power converter designs such as in motor control, power conversion, energy storage and industrial applications.
A new high power IGBT module (LV100 for industrial) is under devel-opment, which has been optimized for the requirements of high power applications in the field of renewable energy converters, and industrial drives. The outline of the module housing is same as HVIGBT LV100 and in line with the new market defacto standard.
Despite the fact that IGBTs have been in the market for a while, this technology is still perfectly suited for high-voltage and high-current applications. The usage of IGBTs is growing not only in the classical applications, but also in new ones. This is due to the fact that new technologies are able to switch up to 100 kHz.
What is an IGBT in a MOSFET?
IGBTs combine the control gate input of a MOSFET and the collector-emitter structure of a power NPN bipolar junction transistor (BJT). This combination provides lower switching losses for high voltage and high current applications, at operating voltages where MOSFETs cannot optimize efficiency. The basic switching function is shown in Figure 1.
Do IGBT modules experience thermal cycling in high power industrial drive applications?
IGBT modules in high power industrial drive applications experience thermal cycling in case of fluctuating (or non-continuous) loads. Wind power converters are usually liquid-cooled with the cooler hav-ing a thermal time constant of a couple of seconds.
Hybrid switch configuration considfred is 1:4 ratio (1 SiC + 3 IGBTs) Efficiency gain of full SiC Inverter and hybrid switch inverters vs IGBT inverter is from low load to medium load, generating advantages in power systems that operate most of the time below 40% load Hybrid switch inverter shows similar efficiency curve compared to SiC.