IGBT Gate Boost Drive Technology for Promoting the Overload Capacity of Traction Converter

Electric locomotives and high-speed EMUs need continuous acceleration or emergency braking under some special route operating conditions, at which time the inverter may have short-term overload conditions, and the current flowing through the IGBT will exceed the rated design tolerance. The IGBT loss will increase instantaneously under overload conditions, resulting in an increase in the junction temperature of the power semiconductor device. Large fluctuations in junction temperature can affect the life of the power device. In this paper, a converter IGBT control technology driven by boosting gate voltage was studied. When the IGBT current capacity needs to be increased for a short time, the gate turn-on voltage can be increased to reduce the conduction voltage drop of the IGBT, thereby reducing the loss and temperature rise fluctuation of the IGBT. Firstly, the influence of gate turn-on voltage rise on IGBT conduction voltage drop and IGBT loss were analyzed, and The IGBT drive circuit with gate boost drive technology was designed. Finally, the effectiveness of this design function was verified by actual switching characteristic test.