Efficient gate drive circuit for IGBT

The IGBT is one of most important power semiconductor device for converter applications from several hundred watts up to 2 MW. This is used only in commutation mode and combines advantages of a MOSFET's (high gate resistance) and bipolar transistor's (small collector-emitter drop at saturated condition). When we use IGBTs for converter application it's very important to choose an optimum solution for circuit driver. Now many circuits driver have some protections for IGBT incorporated. This paper presents a study on the performance of one circuit driver (Skyper32 PRO driver, from Semikron), some experimental results and conclusions about this.