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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
semiconductor device for converter applications from several
hundred watts up to 2 MW. This is used only in commutation
mode and combines advantages of a MOSFET’s (high gate
resistance) and bipolar transistor’s (small collector-emitter drop
at saturated condition). When we use IGBTs for converter
application it’s very important to choose an optimum solution for
circuit driver. Now many circuits driver have some protections
for IGBT incorporated. This paper presents a study on the
performance of one circuit driver (Skyper32 PRO driver, from
Semikron), some experimental results and conclusions about this.
Keywords-component: Electrical engineering education; Power
semiconductor devices;
I. INTRODUCTION
Today, the modern power semiconductor devices,
compared to those of just a few years ago, are used in many
converters topologies for power electronic application, because
they have increased power capabilities, easy control and
reduced the costs.
One of most important power devices for converter
applications at moderate switching frequencies from several
hundred watts up to 1 or 2 MW is the IGBT. This transistor is a
hybrid device and has some combined advantages of the
MOSFET, the BJT and the GTO [1], [2], [3], [4]. These
advantages of IGBT are:
 Has a high impedance gate, like MOSFET, which
requires only a small amount energy to switch the
device so, for this reason, the IGBT offers a
considerable reduction in both size and complexity of
the drive circuitry.
 Has a small on-state voltage even at transistors with
high blocking voltage ratings, as BJT and for this
reason these devices with high power capability have
low power loss.
 Permits to block negative voltages, similar to the GTO.
II. GATE DRIVE CIRCUIT FOR IGBT
When designing a converter for power electronic
application, which use IGBTs (only for commutation mode)
it’s important to consider, for gate drive circuit the follow
items:
 Conduction losses, which depend by IGBT collector
emitter voltage (VCE) during this is in on-state. This losses can
be reduced if the gate emitter voltage (VGE) is increased. So, for
minimize the losses is desirable to increase the voltage VGE to
the maximum value permitted by IGBT (on manufactures data
sheet) usually 15V.
 IGBT switching losses, measured during transistor
turn on and turn off are influenced by the voltage VGE level, the
gate resistance (RG), circuit inductance, snubbers, junction
temperature, operating voltage and current. To decrease the
switching losses it is necessary to increase voltage VGE or
decrease resistance RG, which causes a reduce delay time, rise
time and fall time of IGBT, but Electromagnetic Emissions
(EMI) increase.
 IGBT short circuit protection. Majority of IGBTs
withstand a short circuit for 10ms, if the junction temperature is
lower than 1250C and VGE = 15V. The short circuit condition
can apear in two cases: If the short circuit apear when the
IGBT is in on state both the collector emitter voltage and the
collector current rise very rapidly. Because dv/dt increase also
and considering miller capacitance can increase the voltage
VGE. To limit the level of voltage VGE it’s is recommended to
connect a zener diodes directly across the gate emitter
terminals.
 IGBT gate driver failure problems is very
important thing that you must taking consideration when
designing a converter. Often failure of gate driver is power loss
temporary or permanently. In this case is useful to discharge
the gate emitter and easily it can made by connected a resistor
 Gate driver circuit isolation and transmission of
control signals. In converters for power electronics is very
important to isolate the power circuit from the control circuitry.
For this purpose the isolation must be made for both power
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
taken to ensure that the driver is suitable for voltage capability,
frequency, and immunity to dv/dt.
 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
reduce these spike the driver, in case of short circuit, increases
the gate resistance in series with another resistor RGoff and the
IGBT is turned-off with lower speed and small di/dt.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
This paper presents a few tests that shows some of circuit
driver features. For that we use a SKYPER 32PRO circuit
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

V1
VG
iG
VCE
Figure 8. DSCP protection operation
For test how work the dynamic short circuit protection
(DSCP) by voltage VCE monitoring and if the driver switch off
the IGBT, we simulate a short circuit at outputs for
IGBT_TOP. For that between SEC_TOP_VCE_IN input and
SEC_TOP_GND it’s connected an external DC source with 8V
through a switch K, as is presented in FIG. 3.a. The voltage
VCEsat monitoring is activated before the blanking time tbl is
passes after the IGBT is turned-on. It can observe when K is
switched ON and voltage V1 growing up the driver
automatically switch off the IGBT.
V. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper a new IGBT gate driver circuit features and
some experimental results are presented. The IGBT gate drive
circuit is one of the most important component parts of a
converter for power electronic application, because its has
many functions such as: to drive and protect against
destruction of IGBTs, to isolate the power circuit from the
control circuitry, to establish the switching performances of
IGBT and switching losses.
The SKYPER 32PRO is one of newest circuit driver, from
Semikron which permit to connect with IGBT by wires and by
springs, depending on the variant construction of the IGBT
module by choosing a suitable an adaptor board.
system, for an induction motor.
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The proposed experimental circuit diagram is very useful for
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
switching losses and by the gate resistances;
 Offer possibility to study and observe the behavior of
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;
 To observe that the IGBT turn-off regime is
characterized by damped oscillation between snubber
capacitor and DC-link capacitor (frequency of these
oscillations is determined by the bus bar parasitic
inductance and the snubber capacitor value) and how is
influenced this frequency when is changed the bus bar
parasitic inductance or the snubber capacitor value;
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This paper was supported by the project "Progress and
development through post-doctoral research and innovation in
engineering and applied sciences– PRiDE - Contract no.
POSDRU/89/1.5/S/57083", project co-funded from European
Social Fund through Sectorial Operational Program Human
Resources 2007-2013.
REFERENCES
[1] N.Mohan, T. M. Underland, W. P. Robbins, “Power Electronics,
Converters, Applications and Design,” John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003,
ISBN 978-0-471-22, III21150.
[2] B.K. Bose, “Power electronics and motor drives,” Academic Press,
Elsevier Inc., ISBN 13: 978-0-12-088405-6, 2006.
[3] M. Albu “Electronică de putere,” Casa de editură Venus, Iaşi, 2007,
ISBN: 973-756-003-5.
[4] M. H. Rashid, “Power electronics handbook,” Elsevier Academic Press,
2001, ISBN: 0125816502.
[5] Semikron, www.semikron.com.
[6] Dynex Semiconductor, Application Note “Gate Drive Considerations
For Maximum IGBT Efficiency”, online paper,
http://www.dynexsemi.com/assets/Application_Notes/DNX_AN4507_J
ul02.pdf .