Trends and opportunities in intelligent power modules (IPM)

This paper describes the trends and opportunities in IGBT intelligent power modules (IGBT-IPM) for industrial and automotive applications. After the 1^st generation IPM was released to the market in late 1980´s, continuous technical challenges have pushed them higher performance as well as higher power density. The progresses in IPMs have been done with combination of: 1) Special IGBT chip development, 2) On-chip sensors and 3) Drives and protection. Up to now, in the latest generation IGBT chipset, the IPM has better performance of about one-generation when compared to the widely available standard IGBTs. There are two major direction for future challenges are ongoing in IPM development of : 1) the expanding the power range with new gate drive technologies of managing current balancing in multiple IGBTs connected in parallel. 2) Ultra-fast response challenge by implementing the digital isolators to replace opt-couplers.