Advantage of Next Generation IGBTs
Nowadays, energy saving is the prime objective of every country.
Demand for the energy is increasing and moreover, factors like rising energy
costs, lack of availability of fossil fuels and to reduce the emission of CO2
justify the reason fro energy saving.
Energy can be saved by using efficient machines like inverters which
further require optimized power semiconductor components and devices and IGBTs
have become one of the significant components to achieve the goal. The next
generation IGBT is available in three chip versions which are low, medium and
high power IGBT modules.
version is IGBT4 ? T-4 which gives nominal current from 10 to
300 A with fast switching behavior.
version power module is IGBT4 ? E-4 having good on-state and
switching characteristics and gives current in the range of 150 to 1000 A.
other one is IGBT4 ? P-4 for high power modules with current
greater than 900 A having soft switching characteristics.
The new IGBT4 generation is better than previous IGBT3
in terms of electrical performance. The former is a 1200V optimized chip
operates at 1500C as compare to the latter one which is a 600V
optimized chip operating at 1250C. Among these two IGBTs, the one
which is operating at higher temperature leads to high output power.
Switching characteristics in the IGBT behavior is of real concern.
The E-versions of the IGBTs are softer as compare to T-versions i.e. they have
a soft switching characteristic. This type of characteristics is compared at
nominal current as a function of DC link voltage. Another factor which is
significant in the success of new generation IGBTs chips is the low static and
dynamic losses with higher output. In addition to this , in the insulated gate
transistors the induction of stray inductance with respect to the gate
resistance with turn-on and off losses has a greater influence on the voltage characteristics.
The above described behavior of IGBTs plays a major role in
achieving the optimization potential for all the IGBT modules because as the
stray inductance increases it is necessary to reduce the switching speed which
is further obtained by increasing the external gate resistance. The increased
gate resistance leads to higher turn-on losses. Therefore higher stray
inductance reduces the softness of IGBTs & diodes that results into the
desired potential or output power. Hence the operational behavior of the new
generation IGBTs due to all these characteristic results in the efficient
method of saving energy.
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Tags: dc link, electrical performance, energy costs, energy saving, fossil fuels, gate transistors, generation igbt, high output power, inductance, induction, inverters, medium version, new generation, next generation, power modules, power semiconductor, prime objective, rising energy, saving energy, semiconductor components
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