Reliability Enhancement of Power IGBTs under Short-Circuit Fault Condition Using Short-Circuit Current Limiting-Based Technique

Sadegh Mohsenzade, Javad Naghibi and Kamyar Mehran
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Sadegh Mohsenzade: Electrical Engineering Department, K. N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran P.O. Box 15875-4416, Iran
Javad Naghibi: School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK
Kamyar Mehran: School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 21, 1-18

Abstract: Like the widely-used semiconductor switch, Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) are subject to many failures and degradation in power electronic converters. In Short Circuit Fault (SCF), as the most reported failures in IGBTs, drastic, sudden temperature rise, and peak SCF current are widespread failures owing to a relatively long delay of the protection subsystem. This paper proposes a protection strategy to limit the junction temperature rise by limiting the SCF current by adding a small value resistor in the IGBT emitter. Second, it reduces the SCF current to a value much less than the saturated current. With the proposed control approach, sudden temperature rise during SCF is controlled, preventing significant failure in IGBTs. The extension of the permissible SCF time is achieved even for the cases with temporary arcs. A simple control loop activates in the SCF condition and does not create slow transients for the IGBT. The results of this paper are validated through simulation and experiment.

Keywords: IGBTs; reliability; protection; short circuit fault (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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