A systematic hard- and soft-switching performances evaluation of 1200 V punchthrough IGBT structures

The performances of various 1200 V insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) structures for hard- and soft-switching (both the zero-voltage and the zero-current switching) at high temperature and under various test conditions are investigated in detail. A comparison is made between a conventional planar punchthrough IGBT (P-IGBT) using global lifetime control, a trench punchthrough IGBT (T-IGBT) using local lifetime control and a enhanced planar punchthrough IGBT (N-IGBT) also using the local lifetime control process. A simple and effective specific test circuit allows hard- and soft-switching operating modes, and provides also an independent control on the test parameters (load current, clamping voltage, gate resistance, temperature, dead times). It is highlighted that the local lifetime control is very efficient at high temperature reducing especially the turn-off losses. Furthermore, the T-IGBT exhibits very good performances during hard- and soft-switching turn-off, but this is not the case during hard-switching and zero-voltage switching turn-on. Due to its high input capacitance, the hard-switching turn-on losses are relatively high. Regarding the N-IGBT, it presents good performances under hard-switching and also zero-voltage switching. However, like the T-IGBT, its structure has a strong "inductance behavior" during zero-voltage turn-on increasing the conductivity modulation lag and also the voltage spike leading to high losses. All these data allow to provide useful information for the devices modeling, design, and optimization.