The design of automatic-lock-automatic-retrieve single-chip IPM for converter systems

This paper describes a single-chip intelligent power module (IPM) manufactured by utilizing a modified high voltage BCD process that integrates power devices, LIGBTs, and protection circuits on the SOI substrate. The smart integrated circuits provide automatic-lock-automatic-retrieve sensing and protection functions to give strong and fast protection ability against faults of over-on-state-voltage, over-current, and over-temperature; those are specially designed for power converter usage. When the gate voltage of LIGBT is high and the faulty event is sensed, the protection circuit pulls down the gate voltage to low and toggles LIGBT to off state immediately. However, each time the gate voltage returns to high, LIGBT is retrieved to the normal operating condition automatically. Therefore, the proposed IPM is superior to the converters with pulse-width-modulation (PWM) applications