Switching performances comparison of 1200 V punch-through and nonpunch-through IGBTs under hard-switching at high temperature

Abstract

Switching performances comparison of 1200 V punch-through (PT) and nonpunch-through (NPT) IGBTs under hard-switching at high temperature has been studied in detail with the aid of extensive measurements at various temperatures, gate resistances and clamping voltages. The test circuit allows the characterisation of the switching losses of the IGBTs under hard-switching independently of those due to the freewheeling diode. We show that these losses are quite similar to each other during turn-on, but more important for PT-IGBT during turn-off. Moreover, NPT-IGBT is less sensitive to temperature and clamping voltage variations than PT-IGBT.