Characterization of HV-IGBT for high-power inverter applications

This paper presents an optically isolated high-power full-bridge inverter based upon high-voltage integrated gate bipolar transistors. The inverter switching turn-on and -off losses were characterized for thermal design consideration. Design target is for 5 MW power level. An HV-IGBT based full-bridge module was fabricated for device characterization and continuous power testing. The gate driver is optically isolated with desaturation and over-voltage protection and is tested extensively for reliability concerns. Conduction and switching losses were characterized for inverter loss modeling, and the entire inverter loss under sinusoidal pulse-width-modulation operation was projected based on the device characterization results. The three-phase inverter efficiency was then evaluated for the thermal management consideration.