The series connection of IGBTs with active voltage sharing

Author

Palmer, Patrick R. ; Githiari, Anthony N.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Eng., Cambridge Univ., UK

Volume

12

Issue

4

fYear

1997

fDate

7/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

637

Lastpage

644

Abstract

This paper presents the reasons that make series operation of insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) attractive and challenging and reviews the methods that may be used. Then, a new approach, which uses the IGBT´s gate-controlled active regime in place of large voltage-sharing snubbers, is proposed. Analytical and simulation techniques are used to study the performance and conditions for stability given. It is concluded that when making each IGBT voltage follow a reference input, with closed-loop voltage control, the IGBTs are able to share the transient turn-off voltage without turn-off snubbers. This technique may lead to more compact and efficient high-voltage-power modules

Keywords

closed loop systems; insulated gate bipolar transistors; stability; voltage control; IGBT; active voltage sharing; closed-loop voltage control; gate drives; gate-controlled active regime; high-voltage-power modules; insulated gate bipolar transistors; performance; series connection; simulation techniques; stability conditions; transient turn-off voltage sharing; Analytical models; Costs; Frequency synchronization; Insulated gate bipolar transistors; Performance analysis; Snubbers; Stability analysis; Switches; Switching loss; Voltage control;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Power Electronics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0885-8993

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/63.602558

Filename

602558