Online estimation of IGBT junction temperature (Tj) using gate-emitter voltage (Vge) at turn-off

Author

Sundaramoorthy, V. ; Bianda, E. ; Bloch, R. ; Nistor, I. ; Knapp, G. ; Heinemann, A.

Author_Institution

Corp. Res., ABB Switzerland Ltd., Baden, Switzerland

fYear

2013

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

10

Abstract

The paper presents a novel method for online estimation of the junction temperature (Tj) of semiconductor chips in IGBT modules, based on evaluating the gate-emitter voltage (Vge) during the IGBT switch off process. It is shown that the Miller plateau width (in the Vge waveform) depend linearly on the junction temperature of the IGBT chips. Hence, a method can be proposed for estimating the junction temperature even during converter operation - without the need of additional thermal sensors or complex Rth network models. A measurement circuit was implemented at gate level to measure the involved time duration and its functionality was demonstrated for different types of IGBT modules.

Keywords

insulated gate bipolar transistors; IGBT junction temperature; IGBT modules; IGBT switch off process; Miller plateau width; Vge waveform; complex Rth network models; converter operation; gate level; gate-emitter voltage; measurement circuit; online estimation; semiconductor chips; thermal sensors; time duration; Capacitance; Insulated gate bipolar transistors; Logic gates; Plasma temperature; Temperature; Temperature measurement; Temperature sensors; Device characterization; Diagnostics; Estimation technique; IGBT; Power semiconductor device;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Power Electronics and Applications (EPE), 2013 15th European Conference on

Conference_Location

Lille

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/EPE.2013.6634444

Filename

6634444