IGBT Drivers

How Getting rid of Flying Lead IGBT Driver Interconnect Improves Performance and Reliability

From 2005 through 2010 total world capacity of renewable energy technologiesincluding solar photovoltaic PV wind concentrating solar power CSP and biofuels grew at average rates ranging from around 15 to nearly 50 annually. Solar PV increased the swiftest of all during this period followed by biodiesel and wind. By the end of 2009 green power supplied an estimated 16 of global final energy consumption.

This growth in clean energy generation has created significant new sets of prerequisites for power electronic components with a drive toward higher voltages higher currents and higher operating frequencies. IGBTs and the circuits that drive them have been challenged to stay abreast of this need for further performance.

These needs have created the necessity for tighter integration of the IGBT driver. This had led on to the appearance of plug and play designs which offer bigger efficiencies.

While the improved manufacturable plug and play drivers is most apparent the best benefits from these designs are in the dramatic enhancements in performance that may be done by reducing and eliminating lead lengths and decreasing overall inductance.

Replenishing energy applications have risen performance requirements

With the swift growth of the eco-friendly energy industry power electronics components have been pressed to keep abreast of accelerating demands made by the industry including the desires for:

High power IGBT modules for example those offered by Fuji Semiconductor Infineon SemiKron MitsubishiPowerex and others are experiencing record adoption in solar inverters wind turbines HEVEV and battery systems together with traditional markets like motor drives UPS traction and cutting and welding. While highly cost efficient and effective deriving the best level of performance requires true integration of driver circuitry and IGBT module.

Tuning Drivers to help address these wants

Even at the same voltage and current rating IGBT performance can alter seriously across manufactures and can frequently change within offerings from the same manufacturer. Enhancing driver design could include:

- Changing Gate Resistor Values Gate resistor values might go from 0.5 Ohm up to 3.0 Ohm for optimal performance. - Controlling Deadtime Deadtime is the quantity of time from when either Gate Drive Output falls to 0V and when the opposite Gate Drive Output rises to 0V. Adjusting this variable becomes very critical in higher operating frequency applications. - Operating in Direct Mode or Half-Bridge Mode These decisions further increase the suppleness of the general system but also add complication to design.

For more information, be sure to check out our IGBT Drivers lens.