Wideband Transfer Function Measurements on IGBTs for Active Gate Driver Design and Transient Studies

Abstract

IGBTs (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) are used for power converters. For medium voltages about 3-60kV stacking of IGBTs is an interesting issue but lag of information from the data sheet makes it difficult to design active gate drivers. For these reason measurements of transfer functions has to be done for
different conditions in voltages and currents. In relation to this also the IGBTs reaction to applied frequencies and transients is investigated in different states. With the achieved information’s a model of the IGBT and hereby converters for transient studies can be made. With these studies parasitic components and their behavior can be included in the models. Studies onpassive components like DC capacitors have been done previoulsy. The paper describes the component theory inrelation to higher frequencies. A measurement system (10Hz -1MHz) is designed and described to being used for lab measurements in order to verify the theory. The IGBT SKM100GB123D from SEMIKRON is used for the investigation. Results from the measurements are given and analyzes with respect to the theory are done.