1200V Emcon4 freewheeling diode - a soft alternative

Freewheeling diodes are one of the major components for modern IGBT modules and have to satisfy a number of demands. Especially in hard switching applications, such as inverters for industrial drives or UPS, a soft switching behavior of the diode is - besides low losses and high ruggedness - of major interest. A high softness reduces EMI problems and enables a faster turn-on of the IGBT. In this work, a deep field stop concept is introduced into the next generation of Infineon\´s "Emcon" freewheeling diode, which yields a significant softness increase. The basic function of this field stop concept is illustrated by device simulations, and experimental results for the two realized device optimizations are presented.