Investigations on current filamentation of IGBTs under undamped inductive switching conditions

Author

Shoji, Tomoyuki ; Ishiko, Masayasu ; Fukami, Takeshi ; Ueta, Takashi ; Hamada, Kimimori

Author_Institution

Toyota Central R&D Labs., Inc., Aichi, Japan

fYear

2005

fDate

23-26 May 2005

Firstpage

227

Lastpage

230

Abstract

We have investigated current filamentation of IGBTs occurring under UIS (undamped inductive switching) conditions, by using electro-thermal device simulations. In this paper, we present that the formation of a current filament inevitably takes place even if the device active region include no weak spots. In addition, it is clarified that the current filament travels inside the active region with Joule self-heating, and the filament pinning due to parasitic bipolar action at the weak spot leads to lowering UIS capability.

Keywords

insulated gate bipolar transistors; power transistors; IGBT; Joule self-heating; UIS; current filamentation; electro-thermal device simulation; filament pinning; insulated gate bipolar transistor; parasitic bipolar action; undamped inductive switching; Electrodes; Impact ionization; Induction motors; Insulated gate bipolar transistors; Lattices; Power generation; Research and development; Temperature dependence; Temperature distribution; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs, 2005. Proceedings. ISPSD '05. The 17th International Symposium on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8890-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ISPSD.2005.1487992

Filename

1487992