Back to Content

---

Press Pack IGBTs for MVDC-breaker Applications

Authors & Affiliations

Research and Development, Technical Marketing
Infineon Technologies Bipolar GmbH & Co KG
59581 Warstein
Germany

DOI

https://doi.org/10.14311/ISPS.2023.008

Abstract

With the rising demand for higher power densities and robust system control, the need for using press pack IGBT (PPI) devices in medium voltage (MV) applications is also increasing. So far PPI manufacturers have majorly focused on devices with paralleling of IGBTs/diodes inside a single housing, that drives thousands of Amperes and is used for high-power switching in various converter applications, like High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC), Flexible Alternating Current Transmission Systems (FACTS), and MV drives.

However, the absolute capabilities of a single chip are yet to be intensively explored for applications that do not require fast turn off, standard ±15 V gate voltage, and continuous switching, such as MV-DCbreaker.

The idea of this work is to investigate the boundaries and robustness of a single chip at higher gate voltage for all possible conditions and eventually realize an application out of it. The major focus of the work is on determining the maximum potential of the 4.5 kV trench IGBT chip at a gate voltage as high as 40 V. After performing several robustness and stability tests, it can be claimed that a single chip can turn off at least 12 times the nominal current after conducting about 10 milliseconds, a requirement which is very important for the DC hybrid circuit breaker.

Keywords:

Press pack IGBT, Circuit breaker, MVDC, Surge current, High gate voltage applications

Download full text in pdf