Limitation of the short-circuit ruggedness of high-voltage IGBTs

Author

Kopta, A. ; Rahimo, M. ; Schlapbach, U. ; Kaminski, N. ; Silber, D.

Author_Institution

Semicond., ABB Switzerland Ltd., Lenzburg, Switzerland

fYear

2009

fDate

14-18 June 2009

Firstpage

33

Lastpage

36

Abstract

In this paper, the destruction mechanism, which limits the short-circuit capability of high voltage IGBTs utilizing N-buffer structures will be described. The failure mechanism was studied using a combination of device simulations and experimental investigations of 3.3 kV, 4.5 kV and 6.5 kV IGBTs. It was found that the limiting short-circuit failure in these IGBTs is caused by a current filamentation mechanism, which is associated to a distortion of the electric field triggered by a positive feedback effect between the carrier drift velocities and the electric field and the resulting potential distribution in the IGBT N-base.

Keywords

insulated gate bipolar transistors; N-buffer structures; insulated gate bipolar transistors; voltage 3.3 kV; voltage 4.5 kV; voltage 6.5 kV; Anodes; Electron mobility; Failure analysis; Feedback; Insulated gate bipolar transistors; Pulse circuits; Roentgenium; Semiconductor device measurement; Steady-state; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Power Semiconductor Devices & IC's, 2009. ISPSD 2009. 21st International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Barcelona

ISSN

1943-653X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-3525-8

Electronic_ISBN

1943-653X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ISPSD.2009.5157994

Filename

5157994