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Efficient gate drive circuit for IGBT

Conference Paper · October 2012

DOI: 10.1109/ICEPE.2012.6463590

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 Efficient Gate Drive Circuit for IGBT

Mihai RATA, Gabriela RATA, Leon MANDICI,

Dorel CERNOMAZU, Cristina PRODAN, Ciprian
AFANASOV, Ilie NITAN
Ştefan cel Mare University of Suceava
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Suceava, Romania
mihair@eed.usv.ro

Abstract— The IGBT is one of most important power it’s important to consider, for gate drive circuit the follow
semiconductor device for converter applications from several items:
hundred watts up to 2 MW. This is used only in commutation
mode and combines advantages of a MOSFET’s (high gate  Conduction losses, which depend by IGBT collector
resistance) and bipolar transistor’s (small collector-emitter drop emitter voltage (VCE) during this is in on-state. This losses can
at saturated condition). When we use IGBTs for converter be reduced if the gate emitter voltage (VGE) is increased. So, for
application it’s very important to choose an optimum solution for minimize the losses is desirable to increase the voltage VGE to
circuit driver. Now many circuits driver have some protections the maximum value permitted by IGBT (on manufactures data
for IGBT incorporated. This paper presents a study on the sheet) usually 15V.
performance of one circuit driver (Skyper32 PRO driver, from
Semikron), some experimental results and conclusions about this.  IGBT switching losses, measured during transistor
turn on and turn off are influenced by the voltage VGE level, the
Keywords-component: Electrical engineering education; Power gate resistance (RG), circuit inductance, snubbers, junction
semiconductor devices; temperature, operating voltage and current. To decrease the
switching losses it is necessary to increase voltage VGE or
I. INTRODUCTION decrease resistance RG, which causes a reduce delay time, rise
time and fall time of IGBT, but Electromagnetic Emissions
Today, the modern power semiconductor devices, (EMI) increase.
compared to those of just a few years ago, are used in many
converters topologies for power electronic application, because  IGBT short circuit protection. Majority of IGBTs
they have increased power capabilities, easy control and withstand a short circuit for 10ms, if the junction temperature is
reduced the costs. lower than 1250C and VGE = 15V. The short circuit condition
can apear in two cases: If the short circuit apear when the
One of most important power devices for converter IGBT is in on state both the collector emitter voltage and the
applications at moderate switching frequencies from several collector current rise very rapidly. Because dv/dt increase also
hundred watts up to 1 or 2 MW is the IGBT. This transistor is a and considering miller capacitance can increase the voltage
hybrid device and has some combined advantages of the VGE. To limit the level of voltage VGE it’s is recommended to
MOSFET, the BJT and the GTO [1], [2], [3], [4]. These connect a zener diodes directly across the gate emitter
advantages of IGBT are: terminals.
 Has a high impedance gate, like MOSFET, which  IGBT gate driver failure problems is very
requires only a small amount energy to switch the important thing that you must taking consideration when
device so, for this reason, the IGBT offers a designing a converter. Often failure of gate driver is power loss
considerable reduction in both size and complexity of temporary or permanently. In this case is useful to discharge
the drive circuitry. the gate emitter and easily it can made by connected a resistor
 Has a small on-state voltage even at transistors with  Gate driver circuit isolation and transmission of
high blocking voltage ratings, as BJT and for this control signals. In converters for power electronics is very
reason these devices with high power capability have important to isolate the power circuit from the control circuitry.
low power loss. For this purpose the isolation must be made for both power
 Permits to block negative voltages, similar to the GTO. supply of circuit driver (via transformers) and control / fault
signals transmitted to and from circuit driver (via transformers
or opto isolators). Any solution which is chosen should be
II. GATE DRIVE CIRCUIT FOR IGBT taken to ensure that the driver is suitable for voltage capability,
When designing a converter for power electronic frequency, and immunity to dv/dt.
application, which use IGBTs (only for commutation mode)
 may be induced in the wires (this solution is most used) and by
springs (a new solution developed by Semikron) [5].

III. SKYPER 32PRO CITCUIT DRIVER

The SKYPER 32PRO is one of new IGBT driver, from
Semikron, with two output channels. This driver can be
connected with IGBT in both variants: using wires (Fig.2.a)
and by springs (Fig.2.b). The main features of driver are:
integrated potential free power supply for secondary side,
isolation between control board and power, under voltage
protection, drive interlock (dead time) top / bottom adjustable ,
dynamic short circuit protection (DSCP) by voltage VCE
monitoring and direct switch off, soft turn-off, failure
a) b) management [5].

c) d)
Figure 1. Different solutions for symmetrical or asymmetrical gate control a)

 Driver output and circuit layout. Usually, the driver

output stage of gate drive circuit is in totem pole configuration
and the switches (denoted by K in Fig.1) can be two MOSFETs
(one N-channel and the other P-channel), or two bipolar
transistors (one PNP and the other NPN). The IGBT output
driver is available with one or two outputs, depending on the
solution adopted symmetrical (Fig.1.a) or asymmetrical gate
control for adjust the turn-on and turn-off behavior individually
is illustrated in Fig.1.b,c,d. The increase of IGBT turn-off time
will diminish the inductive peak overvoltage. But, if the driver
has only one output available for the gate resistor,
asymmetrical control can also be maintained using one the two
solutions presented in Fig.1.b and Fig.1.c. To adjust the turn-on
and turn-off behavior individually, in circuit diagram presented b)
in Fig.1.c it can made by placing in parallel to resistor RG2 a
second resistor RG1 in series with a diode. The turn-off time of Figure 2. Ways to connect the circuit Skyper 32PRO with IGBT module
IGBT is establish by RG2 value and value of RG1 establish the
IGBT turn-on time. Both solutions presented in Fig.1.a and The driver are two side (primary side, which is direct
Fig.1.c don’t offer short circuit protection if no delay is connected with processor and secondary side, connected to
considered during switching the switches KT-ON and KT-OFF and IGBT) insulated by magnetic transformers. This transformer
this represents the main disadvantage of these solutions. The set consists of pulse transformer (used for IGBT turn-on and
diagram schema presented in Fig.1.d is recommended for turn-off signals), error feedback between secondary and
asymmetrical control. The main advantages of this solution are: primary side and DC/DC converter to power supply of
the possibility to optimize separately very easy of IGBT turn- secondary side. The dead time can be selected from one of the
on and turn-off and if the both switches KT-ON and KT-OFF are 8 preset values between 1µs ÷ 4.3µs using 4 jumpers. The
ON stage simultaneously, the current which flows from VG+ to driver realizes short circuit protection at IGBT by monitoring
VG- can be limited [3], [6]. of voltage VCE. This protection it’s necessary to dynamically
adapted to the IGBT switching behaviour. For that, using two
The circuit layout must be carefully made to maximize external passive devices (a resistor and a capacitor) can set a
noise immunity because of parasitic circuit elements. In blanking time which passes after IGBT turn-on before the
practice signals from circuit driver to IGBT are transmitted by voltage VCEsat (IGBT on-state saturation voltage) monitoring is
two ways: by wires, which must kept as short as possible and activated. If a short circuit appear and driver turn-off the IGBT,
twisted together to reduce the effect of any noise voltages that because of great di/dt, at collector emitter of the IGBT can
appear voltage spike, which can destroy the transistor. To IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
reduce these spike the driver, in case of short circuit, increases This paper presents a few tests that shows some of circuit
the gate resistance in series with another resistor RGoff and the driver features. For that we use a SKYPER 32PRO circuit
IGBT is turned-off with lower speed and small di/dt. driver with an adaptor board BOARD 1 SKYPER 32PRO for
the solder pin version IGBT module.

a)
DC Bus
Capacitors

PWM Control
Board

SKYPER Snubber
32PRO IGBT Module capacitor Load
b)
Figure 3. Circuit diagram and picture for experimental tests

PWM_BOT We use for power switch, a chopper module with IGBT,

inverse diode + free-wheeling diode on the collector side, type
VG_BOT SKM50GAL123D (50A/1200V), from Semikron, as is shows
in Fig.3.a. The adaptor board allow to set the switching
characteristic of the IGBT by changing turn-on and turn-off
speed through variation of RG_ON and RG_OFF, to adjust the level
VG_TOP of blanking time for, DSCP, soft turn-off, dead time and an
over temperature trip level. In figure 3.b is presented
experimental arrangement for this circuit driver tests. The
signals control are generated by a PWM board control, which
permit to adjust the frequency and duty cycle.
iG_BOT In Fig. 4 is show the dead time (adjusted by jumpers at
4 µs) generated by driver. The switching performances of
IGBT are influenced by the gate resistors RG_ON and RG_OFF, for
that we make two tests for two different values of resistances
Figure 4. Deat time
RG = 27 Ω ( value recommended in IGBT module data sheet) The IGBT module has a snubber capacitor (not illustrated
and RG = 65 Ω, to observe this influence. in Fig. 3.a) to limit the voltage overshoots which appear
Fig. 5, Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 present the signals analyzed with because the high current is switched fast. The IGBT turn-off
oscilloscope for this study. Fig. 6 presents the IGBT turn-off regime is characterized by damped oscillation between snubber
transition for RG_OFF = 27 Ω (Fig.6.a), respectively capacitor and DC-link capacitor. The frequency of the damped
RG_OFF = 65 Ω (Fig.6.b). oscillation (typically in the range of 100 kHz up to several
MHz) is determined by the bus bar parasitic inductance and the
PWM_BOT
snubber capacitor value. This frequency can be calculated with
equation (1), for our application f ≈ 160 kHz..
iG
1 1
 f    
T 2    LDC  Link  Csnubber
VCE
In Fig. 7 is illustrate turn-on transition of IGBT with
resistor RG_ON = 27 Ω (Fig.7.a), respectively RG_ON = 65 Ω
(Fig.7.b). It can observe that, because gate resistance increase
io the peak of gate current decrease, pulse duration increase and
the turn-on time as well as the IGBT switching losses will
increase also.
VG
Figure 5. IGBT turn-on and turn-off transition regime
VG iG

iG

VCE

VCE
io

io
a)
VG
a)

iG
VG
iG

VCE
VCE
io

io
b)
Figure 7. IGBT Turn-ON transition
b)
Figure 6. IGBT Turn-OFF transition
 The proposed experimental circuit diagram is very useful for
V1 working with students at power electronics laboratory,
because of its features:
 Permits to study and observe the behavior of IGBT at
turn-on and turn-off transition, with different gate
resistances. To observe also, how is influenced
VG switching losses and by the gate resistances;
 Offer possibility to study and observe the behavior of
iG circuit gate drive and IGBT when is simulate a short
circuit regime;
 To choose a different dead time;
 To observe how work under voltage protection;
VCE
 To observe that the IGBT turn-off regime is
characterized by damped oscillation between snubber
capacitor and DC-link capacitor (frequency of these
Figure 8. DSCP protection operation
oscillations is determined by the bus bar parasitic
For test how work the dynamic short circuit protection inductance and the snubber capacitor value) and how is
(DSCP) by voltage VCE monitoring and if the driver switch off influenced this frequency when is changed the bus bar
the IGBT, we simulate a short circuit at outputs for parasitic inductance or the snubber capacitor value;
IGBT_TOP. For that between SEC_TOP_VCE_IN input and
SEC_TOP_GND it’s connected an external DC source with 8V ACKNOWLEDGMENT
through a switch K, as is presented in FIG. 3.a. The voltage This paper was supported by the project "Progress and
VCEsat monitoring is activated before the blanking time tbl is development through post-doctoral research and innovation in
passes after the IGBT is turned-on. It can observe when K is engineering and applied sciences– PRiDE - Contract no.
switched ON and voltage V1 growing up the driver
POSDRU/89/1.5/S/57083", project co-funded from European
automatically switch off the IGBT.
Social Fund through Sectorial Operational Program Human
Resources 2007-2013.
V. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper a new IGBT gate driver circuit features and REFERENCES
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many functions such as: to drive and protect against Elsevier Inc., ISBN 13: 978-0-12-088405-6, 2006.
destruction of IGBTs, to isolate the power circuit from the [3] M. Albu “Electronică de putere,” Casa de editură Venus, Iaşi, 2007,
control circuitry, to establish the switching performances of ISBN: 973-756-003-5.
IGBT and switching losses. [4] M. H. Rashid, “Power electronics handbook,” Elsevier Academic Press,
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Semikron which permit to connect with IGBT by wires and by [5] Semikron, www.semikron.com.
springs, depending on the variant construction of the IGBT [6] Dynex Semiconductor, Application Note “Gate Drive Considerations
For Maximum IGBT Efficiency”, online paper,
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