SWITCHING VOLTAGE TRANSIENT PROTECTION SCHEMES FOR HIGH-CURRENT IGBT MODULES

The emergence of high-current and faster switching insulated gate bipo lar transistor (IGBT) modules has made it imperative for designers to look at ways of protecting these devices against detrimental switching voltage transients that are a common side effect of these efficient t ransistors, This paper will discuss protection criteria for both norma l switching operation and short-circuit operation and will cover in de tail some of the protection schemes that were designed to address thes e problems.