A study on the short-circuit capability of field-stop IGBTs

Author

Otsuki, Masahito ; Onozawa, Yuichi ; Kanemaru, Hiroshi ; Seki, Yasukazu ; Matsumoto, Takashi

Author_Institution

Fuji Hitachi Power Semicond. Co. Ltd., Nagano, Japan

Volume

50

Issue

6

fYear

2003

fDate

6/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1525

Lastpage

1531

Abstract

The short-circuit failure mechanism of 1200 V trench gate field-stop insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) has been investigated in this paper. Experimental testing shows that most of the devices failed during the blocking state after a few hundred microseconds of the short-circuit turn-off condition. This unusual failure mode was analyzed both with experimental and numerical investigation. It has been determined that due to significantly large leakage current, thermal run-away can occur causing device failure after short circuit turn-off. Due to the smaller heat capacity of the FS-IGBT structure, the device temperature after the turn-off becomes so high that the local heating produced by the high temperature leakage current results in the thermal run-away.

Keywords

failure analysis; insulated gate bipolar transistors; leakage currents; power transistors; semiconductor device measurement; semiconductor device reliability; temperature distribution; thermal analysis; 1200 V; blocking state; device temperature; failure mode analysis; insulated gate bipolar transistor; leakage current; local heating; short-circuit failure mechanism; short-circuit measurement; short-circuit turn-off condition; thermal run-away; trench gate field-stop IGBT; Bipolar transistors; Circuits; Failure analysis; Heating; Insulated gate bipolar transistors; Leakage current; Motor drives; Temperature; Testing; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TED.2003.813505

Filename

1213826