Novel press pack IGBT device and switch assembly for Pulse Modulators

As the trend for Pulse Modulator applications nowadays is moving strongly into the direction of switch-on/-off devices, ABB has developed a new IGBT module which is designed to operate under specific pulsed power, non industrial standard conditions. A press pack IGBT module will be presented which is optimized for pulsed power applications. The device has a collector-emitter voltage Vces of 4500V and is offering a chip set combination of 85% IGBT and 15% diode dies. The device has excellent current sharing between the individual chips, no wire bonding, and it will be shown that the advantages of the new design are high peak current at high dt/dt and high switching frequency as well as immunity to inhomogeneous clamping. The last is very important in case a large number of series devices are used, especially in applications where mechanical ruggedness is required, these devices are superior to conventional press pack IGBT's. A ready-to-use 20 kVdc / 4 kA switch assembly containing 7 pieces of the mentioned devices in series connection including cooling and driving circuit will be described.