Study of the protection and driving characteristics for high voltage high power IGBT modules used in traction convertor

The development of high power IGBTs greatly improves the capacity and efficiency of electrical converter systems, making high power inverter systems widely used in most fields of modern society. With high power density, more compacted design and high structure strength, traction converters could promote faster and more efficiency of modern electrical locomotives. Reliable and high quality protection for IGBT drivers can lead to the best characteristics of a high power IGBT module. In this paper, a simulation model was built to analyze a kind of IGBT failure based on one type locomotive. The possible reason of the IGBT fault caused by current short was studied. A novel IGBT driver circuits was designed. With VCE voltage detecting and active voltage clamping, the driver circuit can accurately detect the short circuit of IGBT, and can effectively restrain the overvoltage in short-circuit shut off, Its feasibility is proved by simulation.