Surge Current Behaviour of Different IGBT Designs

The insulated gate bipolar transistor is the most important semiconductor in medium and high power applications. Surge-current mode of IGBTs can protect the load from alternating torques. Thus, robustness of IGBTs with regard to surge current mode is essential for some failure modes. This paper will compare different IGBT designs at 4 ms and 10 ms high current pulses with an applied gate voltage above the rated datasheet value. It will be shown that the increase of the emitter side carrier concentration leads to lower power dissipation and thus to an increased robustness during surge current events.