Design, package, and hardware verification of a high voltage current switch

In this paper, an attempt has been made to demonstrate various package design considerations to accommodate series connection of high voltage Si-IGBT (6500V/25A die) and SiC-Diode (6500V/25A die). The effects of connecting the cathode of the series diode to the collector of the IGBT versus connecting the emitter of the IGBT to the anode of the series diode have been analyzed in regards to parasitic line inductance of the structure. Various simulation results have then been used to redesign and justify the optimized package structure for the final current switch design. The package is fabricated using the optimized parameters. A double pulse test-circuit has been assembled. Initial hardware results have been shown to verify functioning. The main motivation of this work is to enumerate detailed design considerations for packing a high voltage current switch package.