A critique of the turn-on physics of power bipolar devices

Author

Pendharkar, S. ; Shenai, K.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Wisconsin Univ., Madison, WI, USA

fYear

1995

fDate

2-3 Oct 1995

Firstpage

209

Lastpage

212

Abstract

This paper compares the turn-on performance of a vertical p-i-n diode and IGBT, under zero-voltage switching (ZVS). Although both the devices are “conductivity modulated” during turn-on, the IGBT carrier dynamics distinctly differ from that of a p-i-n diode. It is shown that, for identical drift region parameters, the conductivity modulation in IGBT is significantly lower compared to that in a p-i-n rectifier mainly because of carrier flow constraints in the IGBT and its inherent bipolar transistor-like nature. Two-dimensional (2D) mixed device and circuit simulations are performed to understand the behavior of the two devices during turn-on under ZVS

Keywords

insulated gate bipolar transistors; p-i-n diodes; power semiconductor diodes; power semiconductor switches; power transistors; solid-state rectifiers; IGBT; ZVS; carrier dynamics; carrier flow constraints; conductivity modulation; p-i-n rectifier; power bipolar devices; turn-on physics; turnon performance; vertical p-i-n diode; zero-voltage switching; Circuit simulation; Data mining; Drives; Finite element methods; Insulated gate bipolar transistors; P-i-n diodes; Packaging; Physics; Rectifiers; Zero voltage switching;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Bipolar/BiCMOS Circuits and Technology Meeting, 1995., Proceedings of the 1995

Conference_Location

Minneapolis, MN

Print_ISBN

0-7803-2778-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/BIPOL.1995.493900

Filename

493900