Capacitive effects in IGBTs limiting their reliability under short circuit

Abstract

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Increasing emitter efficiency in 3.3-kV enhanced trench IGBTs for higher short-circuit capability

“…In [14], it has been pointed out for the first time that a parametric oscillation takes place during the IGBT short circuit, whose time-varying element is the Miller capacitance, leading to the amplification mechanism. This occurs when the electric field at the emitter side of the IGBT becomes too weak, as a consequence of the electric field rotation.…”

“…2), The Kirk Effect in IGBTs is related with the root cause of such high-frequency oscillations. In [14], it has also been found that such oscillation phenomenon can be recognized as a parametric oscillation, whose time-varying element is the Miller capacitance. In [14], it has been demonstrated that it is possible to relate the electric field distortions to gate capacitance variations, and associate the capacitance variation with charge-storage effects, occurring at the surface of the IGBT.…”

A self-adaptive blanking time circuit for fast IGBT de-saturation short-circuit protection

“…Insulate gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) is the key component in the power system, which could be used in a range of several hundred volts to several thousand volts. Power devices are considered as the most fragile components in the power system, and will experience extreme conditions during the long-term wear-out [1,2]. Therefore, monitoring and predicting failure are always carried out to effectively improve reliability and prolong the life span of IGBTs [3].…”

“…Therefore, blanking time is needed to avoid false triggering. M. Chen group proposed a self-adaptive blanking circuit for IGBT short-circuit protection based 1 on VCE monitoring where a fixed delay time unit still exists to cope with the hard switching failure [24,25]. This paper introduces an improved self-adaptive blanking time circuit.…”