Short circuit behavior of the Bi-mode Insulated Gate Transistor (BIGT)

The BIGT is a Reverse Conducting IGBT device which combines functionality of a high power IGBT and fast diode on a single chip. In this paper, an investigation of the IGBT mode short circuit performance of the BIGT is carried out. The behavior of the BIGT under IGBT mode short circuit conditions is illustrated by measurements on a 3.3kV 1500A HiPak1 module and then supported by circuit and detailed device physics simulations. The short circuit conditions of type II and type III are discussed, with the variations introduced due to the gate control of the BIGT when operated in reverse conducting mode. Comparison to standard IGBTs with Soft-Punch-Through (SPT) technology in a HiPak2 module is also provided.