Behaviour analysis of the IGBT in hard and soft switching modes by a soft modelling concept

This paper presents an investigation of IGBT behavior in hard switching (on, off) and soft switching both ZCS and ZVS. The authors are aiming towards an IGBT physical description which would be useful to power electronic engineers for circuit design improvement: power losses; switching frequency. A simple analytical model (soft modelling) where essential physical phenomena are taken into account has been developed. The modelling is given for each commutation mode: hard (on, off) and soft switching (ZCS and ZVS). Using a special testing circuit, design experimentation is performed in single-shot mode. The advantages of this technique is that junction temperature component is determined through the case temperature and very low energy consumption. Finally simulated and experimented results are qualitatively verified