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Insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) are increasingly being used in power electronics, in applications such as frequency converters, power
supplies and electronic drives.
IGBTs have high inverse voltages (up to 6,5 kV) gate-emitter capacitance, CCE the collector-
and are capable of switching currents up to emitter capacitance and CGC the gate-
3 kA. One key component of every power collector capacitance or Miller capacitance.
electronics system is – besides the power The gate charge is characterised by the
modules themselves – the IGBT driver, which input capacitances CGC and CGE and is the
forms the vital interface between the power key parameter when calculating the output
transistor and the controller. The choice of the power requirements for an IGBT driver circuit.
driver and the calculation of the right driver The capacitances are almost independent of
output power determine the reliability of the temperature, but strongly voltage dependent
converter solution. Insufficient driver power or and as such a function of the collector-emitter
the wrong driver may result in module and driver
voltage VCE of the IGBTs. While this dependency
malfunction. The following paper summarises
is substantially higher at a very low collector-
means to calculate driver output performance
emitter voltage it drops to higher voltages. Fig. 2: Simplified gate charge waveforms.
for switching IGBTs.
When the IGBT is turned on the gate charge
Gate charge characterises the IGBT behaviour characterises the behaviour of the IGBT. Fig. 2
shows the simplified waveforms of the gate- How to measure and determine the gate
The switching behaviour of an IGBT module charge
emitter voltage VGE, the gate current IG, and the
is determined mainly by semiconductor
corresponding collector current IC as functions
capacitances (charges) and the internal By means of a simplified test circuit the gate
of time from turn-on of the IGBT to its saturation.
and outer resistances. Fig. 1 shows a sketch charge can be measured. Via a constant
The turn-on process can be divided into three current source (QG=I x t) the gate is driven
of the IGBT capacitances where CGE is the
stages as seen in the IG = f(t) diagram. These while the gate voltage VGE is measured with
are charging of the gate-emitter capacitance, an oscilloscope. The determined gate charge
charging of the gate-collector capacitance curve (Fig. 3) can be used to calculate the
and charging of the gate-emitter capacitance gate charge per pulse needed to drive the
until full IGBT saturation. The gate current IG IGBT. The total gate-emitter voltage can be
charges the input capacitances and the calculated by taking the difference of the
voltages VGE and VCE that are dependent on the applied gate turn-on VG(on) and turn-off voltage
charging process characterise the turn-on and VG(off) into account. The graph in Fig. 3 shows the
turn-off behaviour of the IGBT. During turn-off the gate charge curve in the positive and negative
processes described run in the reverse direction quadrant. If the gate charge curve is given in
and the charge has to be removed from the the positive quadrant only, the gate charge
gate. To calculate the driver output power, the amplitude can be read out by extrapolation.
input capacitances may only be applied to a Even in case no gate charge curve is available
certain extent due to their non-linearity. A more by means of a less accurate method using
practical way of determining the driver output the input capacitance Cies=CGE+CGC the gate
Fig. 1: IGBT capacitances. power is to use the gate charge characteristic. charge can be determined [7].