Turn-on loss reduction of 6.5kV/500 a trench/field-stop IGBTs using a simple GDU

Abstract

In recent years a tendency to increase the number of semiconductor switches in power electronic systems can be observed. This changes the requirements of modern gate units, which are forced to become more simple and reliable. Nevertheless, the performance of the switches should not be affected. This paper presents a review of the state of the art for GDUs. Since existing driving methods are often far too complex and expensive for modern PE-Systems (e.g. power electronic traction transformer etc.), a new simple Dual Stage Driver GDU with fixed timing control is proposed to reduce the IGBT turn-on losses. A detailed analysis of the timing dependency of important switching characteristics is given for every operating point to verify this method.

Turn-on Loss Reduction for High Voltage Power Stack Using Active Gate Driving Method

“…It is important to minimize these losses, particularly, the converter switching loss for a high power capacity. To overcome the switching delay and switching loss problems, various active driving approaches have been proposed in the past [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. The methods in [5][6][7][8][9][10] have used multiple gate resistors to control the gate current during switching transients.…”