Title :
Active Fault Protection for High Power IGBTs
Author :
Chen, Lihua ; Peng, Fang Z.
Author_Institution :
Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI
Abstract :
An active fault protection method is proposed to prevent the IGBTs from being damaged should they be under over-current and short circuit fault conditions. A closed-loop gate drive method is used to effectively control the IGBT turn-off switching speed independent of the fault type or resultant over-current level. Compared with conventional solutions, the proposed method can limit fault current level, minimize energy loss with fast shut down transient, and control voltage overshoot. Also, no additional hardware circuit or soft shut down process is need. Even if an over-current fault condition can not be effectively detected, the automatically controlled IGBT turn-off switching speed can avoid a dangerous voltage overshoot across the power device. This new feature can significantly improve the robustness of the power system and cannot be achieved with the conventional approaches.
Keywords :
insulated gate bipolar transistors; overcurrent protection; IGBT turn-off switching speed; active fault protection; closed-loop gate drive method; fault current level; high power IGBT; over-current fault condition; short circuit fault conditions; shut down transient; voltage overshoot control; Circuit faults; Electrical fault detection; Energy loss; Fault currents; Fault detection; Hardware; Insulated gate bipolar transistors; Power system transients; Protection; Voltage control;
Conference_Titel :
Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition, 2009. APEC 2009. Twenty-Fourth Annual IEEE
Conference_Location :
Washington, DC
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-2811-3
Electronic_ISBN :
1048-2334
DOI :
10.1109/APEC.2009.4802956