The 3rd generation IGBT toward a limitation of IGBT performance

The performance of the third-generation IGBT (insulated-gate bipolar transistor) is described. It is demonstrated that a 600-V/100-A third-generation IGBT has an on-state voltage drop of about 1.7 V and a fall-time of about 150 ns during inductive-load turn-off, which is very close to the limit of IGBT performance predicted by numerical simulation. The device has overcurrent protection, and an average short circuit withstand capability of 30 mu s was obtained. An almost 40% reduction in the switching loss has been realized, as compared with conventional IGBT modules, for a PWM (pulse width modulated) inverter application.<>