Optimized IGBT Turn-On Switching Performance Using the Full Device Safe Operating Area

This paper presents a step-wise gate driver using a switched gate resistor topology for an insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT). An optimization procedure to reduce the turn-on switching losses while maintaining equal device stress is presented. While commercial drivers are usually designed for a worst case operating point, the presented driver uses the maximum operating conditions of the IGBT in the entire operating range. It is shown that, compared to a state of the art commercial gate driver, turn-on switching loss improvements are achieved when using the full device capability at partial load. Reduced switching losses in the partial load range lead to better efficiency and thus to an improvement for most power electronic converters, as these are most of the time operated in the partial load range. The paper concludes with an evaluation of the measurement results, showing improvements in turn-on switching losses of up to 69% compared to a commercial gate driver in the partial load range.