Second breakdown and latch-up behavior of IGBTs

The semiconductor structure of bipolar transistors can cause failures by second breakdown. Also power MOSFETs and new semiconductor devices like IGBTs with a parasitic npn-structure may be damaged by this mechanism. First generation IGBTs with a parasitic thyristor inside the device are susceptible to the phenomenon of latch-up. Advances in technology improve the device characteristics. Modern IGBTs seem to show no latch-up despite the existing parasitic thyristor in their structure. This paper gives a short discussion of latch-up and second breakdown phenomena. IGBT of different semiconductor generations during latch-up under various conditions were investigated. A test circuit for these measurements is proposed