Design, Package, and Hardware Verification of a High-Voltage Current Switch

This paper demonstrates various electrical and package design considerations in series connecting a high-voltage (HV) silicon (Si)-IGBT (6500-V/25-A die) and a silicon carbide-junction barrier Schottky diode (6500-V/25-A die) to form an HV current switch. The effects of connecting the cathode of the series diode to an IGBT collector, versus connecting the IGBT emitter to the anode of the series diode, are analyzed in regards to minimizing the parasitic inductance. An optimized package structure is discussed and an HV current switch module is custom fabricated in the laboratory. An HV double pulse test circuit is used to verify the switching performance of the current switch module. Low-voltage and HV converter prototypes are developed and tested to ensure thermal stability of the same. The main motivation of this paper is to enumerate detailed design considerations for packaging an HV current switch.