Characterization of power IGBTS under pulsed power conditions

The power insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) is used in many types of applications. Although the use of the power IGBT has been well characterized for many continuous operation power electronics applications, little published information is available regarding the performance of a given IGBT under pulsed power conditions. Additionally, component libraries in circuit simulation software packages have a finite number of IGBTs. This paper presents a process for characterizing the performance of a given power IGBT under pulsed power conditions. Specifically, signals up to 4.5 kV and 1 kA with approximately a 5 ¿s pulse width will be applied to a given IGBT. This process utilizes curve fitting techniques with collected data to determine values for a set of modeling parameters. These parameters are used in the Oziemkiewicz implementation of the Hefner model for the IGBT that is utilized in some circuit simulation software packages. After the nominal parameter values are determined, they can be inserted into the Oziemkiewicz implementation to simulate a given IGBT.