Short circuit behaviour of IGBTs and their protection

Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) modules, when first introduced, were of the low gain, low efficiency variety which were also endowed with a similar capability to that of the BJT module. A consequence of this availability from the slower devices, was the same requirement being expected of newer high gain, high efficiency devices; although the devices themselves were not in need of such enhancement. Their in-built speed meant fault protection could usually be initiated as soon as the fault occured. Design engineers, however, deemed that short-circuit withstand capability was still a requirement; this has now duly been fabricated into the devices