Optimised diodes for high voltage GTO snubbers

Author

Profumo, F. ; Tenconi, A. ; Facelli, S. ; Passerini, B. ; Fimiani, S.

Author_Institution

Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica, Bologna Univ., Italy

Volume

3

fYear

1996

fDate

6-10 Oct 1996

Firstpage

1292

Abstract

In this paper, discussion is focused on the optimum characteristics of the diode for an active GTO snubber circuit. A description of the high voltage GTO turn-off operation which put in evidence the critical voltage and power loss spikes is reported. In this description, attention is drawn on the importance assumed by the electrical parameters of the snubber diode for the GTO safe turn-off operation. A new snubber diode with improved characteristics is proposed and the advantages of this new design with respect to the traditional solutions are explained. In the last section, the performance of the new generation snubber diode and the standard high voltage soft switching fast recovery diode are experimentally compared

Keywords

optimisation; power semiconductor diodes; power semiconductor switches; semiconductor device models; semiconductor device testing; snubbers; switching circuits; thyristors; HV GTO snubbers; active GTO snubber circuit; critical voltage; fast recovery diode; high voltage GTO turn-off operation; optimum characteristics; power loss spikes; soft switching; Anodes; Cathodes; Circuits; Diodes; Electric breakdown; Inductance; Low voltage; Rectifiers; Snubbers; Thyristors;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Industry Applications Conference, 1996. Thirty-First IAS Annual Meeting, IAS '96., Conference Record of the 1996 IEEE

Conference_Location

San Diego, CA

ISSN

0197-2618

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3544-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IAS.1996.559232

Filename

559232