Effects of the HV-BIGT Design Elements on the High-Frequency Oscillation Instability during Short Circuit Transients

The design elements of the Bi-mode Insulated Gate Transistor BIGT show that the combination of the high hole injection levels supplied from the collector together with the presence of a localized lifetime control at the MOS cells have brought improvements on the short circuit capability, strongly minimizing the high-frequency oscillations observed in IGBTs. The BIGT concept and the traditional IGBT structures have been compared under short circuit conditions to investigate the charge-field interactions at the MOS cells, triggering the oscillation mechanism. The effect of the lifetime control and the irradiation method on the short circuit capability is investigated.