IGBT dynamics for clamped inductive switching

Clamped inductive switching performance of insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) have been studied in detail with the aid of extensive measurements and numerical simulations. Internal dynamics of a latch-up free punch-through IGBT during clamped inductive switching is studied using two-dimensional (2-D) mixed device and circuit simulations incorporating the self-heating mechanism. Failure of IGBT during inductive load turn-off is shown to occur due to thermally assisted carrier multiplication at the reverse biased p-base n-drift region junction under the emitter contact.