POWER ELECTRONICS LAB

LAB MANNUAL 05
Study and Analysis of Characteristic Curves of IGBT’s

SUBMITTED TO:
ENGR. ZAINAB SHAHID

SUBMITTED BY
Group 05

17-EE-23
Muhammad Faisal Gill
17-EE-35
Abdul Qadeer
17-EE-41
Hafiz Muhammad Usman
17-EE-47
Awais Aslam
17-EE-71
Bilal Sarwar
17-EE-107
Muhammad Awais
17-EE-131
Abdul Majid Shah

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY,

TAXILA
OBJECTIVES
The main Objectives of this lab are:
• Understand the fundamentals of IGBTs and improve them.
• To review IGBT fundamentals and research their characteristic curves.
• To evaluate their modes of operating and losses.
• To verify all the results using Multisim

SOFTWARE USED
Multisim 14.2

THEORY
IGBT
IGBT is Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor. It is a three-terminal semiconductor switching
device that can be used for fast switching with high efficiency in many types of electronic
devices.
It has characteristics of both MOSFET and BJT. It is a voltage triggered device as we apply
voltage on gate it turns on. The has very high breakdown voltage as compared to other
transistors that why it is called high voltage transistor.

Figure 1 IGBT SYMBOL

1.1- Operating regions and modes:

The Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor, (IGBT) combines the insulated gate (hence the first
part of its name) technology of the MOSFET with the output performance characteristics of
a conventional bipolar transistor, (hence the second part of its name). The result of this
hybrid combination is that the “IGBT Transistor” has the output switching and conduction
characteristics of a bipolar transistor but is voltage-controlled like a MOSFET.
Because the IGBT is a voltage-controlled device, it only requires a small voltage on the Gate
to maintain conduction through the device unlike BJT’s which require that the Base current
is continuously supplied in a sufficient enough quantity to maintain saturation. Initially,
when no voltage is applied to the gate pin the IGBT is in turn off condition and no current
flows through the collector pin. When the voltage applied to the gate pin exceeds the
threshold voltage, the IGBT starts conducting and the collector current I G starts to flow
between the collector and emitter terminals. The collector current increases with respect to
the gate voltage as shown in the graph below.

Graph of 𝑰𝑪 vs 𝑽𝑮for IGBT. Characteristic curves for IGBT.

The output characteristics of IGBT have three stages, initially, when the Gate Voltage V GE is
zero the device is in the off state, this is called the cutoff region. When V GE is increased and
if it is less than the threshold voltage then there will be a small leakage current flowing
through the device, but the device will still be in the cutoff region. When the V GE is increased
beyond the threshold voltage the device goes into the active region and the current starts
flowing through the device. The flow of current will increase with an increase in the voltage
VGE as shown in the graph above.

Characteristic Operating Conditions and Applications

Regions Zones Characteristics
Saturation Region Safe 𝐼𝐶 = 𝐼𝑆𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 & Switch
𝑉𝐺𝐸˃𝑉𝐺𝐸(𝑇ℎ)
Cut-off Region Safe 𝐼𝐶 = 0 & 𝑉𝐺𝐸 = Switch
0 𝑜𝑟 𝑉𝐺𝐸˂𝑉𝐺𝐸(𝑇ℎ)
Active Region Safe 𝐼𝐶 = β𝐼𝐵 & Amplifier
 𝑉𝐺𝐸˃𝑉𝐺𝐸(𝑇ℎ)
Breakdown Region Unsafe 𝑉𝐶𝐸 > 𝑉𝐵𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛 Transistor Failure

Applications
1. It has high breakdown voltage, so it is used in high voltage applications.
2. It has characteristics of both MOSFET and BJT that’s why I can cover applications of
these two.
3. IGBTs are used in various applications such as AC and DC motor drives, Unregulated
Power Supply (UPS), Switch Mode Power Supplies (SMPS), traction motor control
and induction heating.
Limitations
1. Latching up is problem.
2. It cannot block high reverse voltage.
3. It has High turn off time.
4. Its Cost is high.

LAB TASKS

Task 1: Characteristics Curves and Safe Operating Area

Results:
Analysis
The transistor falls in the cut-off region and can be used as the switch in off condition, under
conditions IC = 0 and VGE = 0 or VGE <VGE(Th).
The transistor falls in saturation area and can be used in condition as a switch in the
conditions IC=ISaturated and VGE>VGE(Th).
The conductivity region is more active/amplifies between saturation and breakdown regions.
As the voltage VGE increases over and above the voltage threshold, the circuit reaches the
active area and begins to flow through the device. Therefore, It is used in amplifying circuits.
The protected area of service includes all regions of the V CE<VBreakdown. The transistor is said
to be above this condition in the fracture or unsafe region. In the laboratory, the transistor
voltage was 1200V.

Task 2: Study and Analysis of switching and conduction losses of IGBT’s

 Results:

Analysis:
  The IGBT's lead losses are smaller than those of MOSFET. This is because the
conductivity modulation has caused IGBT to fall very low on-state voltage. As a
result, the state driving losses in comparison with the MOSFET are minimal.
 For low frequency (under 20 kHz) applications, IGBT are favored and for high
voltage applications (over 1000V). The switching speed is higher than the BJT's but
less than the MOSFET's.
 IGBT's switching losses are also smaller than MOSFET's, as they are rated for higher
voltages than MOSFET's. As a consequence, low current at high voltages causes low
losses.

CONCLUSION
In this lab, we studied the fundamentals of IGBT and its various operating regions and
implementations. These IGBT operational areas are divided into two zones as protected and
non-safe. Safe areas are regions in which transistors are operating correctly and can be used
for a variety of applications, while non-safe zone it is un useful. Compared with MOSFET's,
IGBT's have less loss of switching and conduction, and are preferred for low frequency
applications.