Title :
Short circuit analysis and protection of power module IGBTs
Author :
Pagano, Rosario ; Chen, Yang ; Smedley, Keyue ; Musumeci, Salvatore ; Raciti, Angelo
Author_Institution :
EECS-PEL, California Univ., Irvine, CA
Abstract :
In this paper, the failure modes of power module IGBTs have been experimentally studied by focusing on the short-circuit behaviour of the devices, with reference to the hard switching fault (HSF) and fault under load (FUL) types of fault. In particular, the current ringing phenomenon, having an important influence on the short circuit behaviour of the IGBTs, has been investigated by taking in account for the gate driving conditions. A suitable circuit which performs the fault protection of IGBTs by taking into account for the large voltage spikes and oscillations at turn-off is proposed. Due to such an influence of current oscillations on the collector voltage of the IGBT, a low-pass filter designed at the gate side of the device has been provided to damp the gate voltage oscillations and, consequently, the collector voltage ringing. By this way, full protection of the IGBT in short-circuit conditions has been successfully achieved
Keywords :
failure analysis; fault diagnosis; insulated gate bipolar transistors; low-pass filters; oscillations; power bipolar transistors; short-circuit currents; FUL; HSF; collector voltage; current ringing phenomenon; failure modes; fault protection; fault under load; gate driving condition; hard switching fault; low-pass filter; power module IGBT; short-circuit behaviour; voltage oscillation; voltage spikes; Circuit analysis; Circuit faults; Circuit testing; Insulated gate bipolar transistors; Low pass filters; Multichip modules; Power dissipation; Protection; Switching circuits; Voltage;
Conference_Titel :
Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition, 2005. APEC 2005. Twentieth Annual IEEE
Conference_Location :
Austin, TX
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-8975-1
DOI :
10.1109/APEC.2005.1453063
