Design of LIGBT protection circuit for smart power integration

Development of a monolithic power integrated circuit by making the lateral insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) the main switching device is a current topic. The overcurrent protection scheme is usually necessary to be built as part of the function in such a power integrated circuit. The protection circuit requires distinguishing various fault conditions and reacting differently based on the device safe operating area (SOA) limitation. At the same time, the protection circuit should also be relatively concise and suitable for integration. In this paper, a concise circuit suitable for integration and with gate drive capability is proposed to provide the complete function of overcurrent SOA protection for the LIGBT. The operational principle was described in detail and the circuit performance was verified with experimental results from both the discrete circuit and the fabricated LIGBT integrated circuit.