A Study on Design of IGBT and Testing Methodologies

The IGBT (insulated Gate Bi-polar Transistor) is gaining importance in railroad traction applications because of their higher blocking voltage, larger current handling and better electrical characteristics. The IGBT combines the advantages of a power MOSFET (Metal-Oxide Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor) and a bi-polar transistor. The input has an MOSFET gate structure, and the output is a wide-base PNP transistor. The important parameters for designing IGBT are threshold voltage, breakdown voltage, and on-resistance. In this paper, the IGBT design topic of protection against over voltage and over current is dealt. Also, the basic model of IGBT is proposed, the methodologies for testing its parameters are studied, and the testing results are compared.