High Current Density 4.5 kV PressPack IGBTs Push SOA Limits.

Abstract:
Hermetic pressure contact PressPack IGBTs are getting more attention due to their exceptional perfor-mance in harsh environmental conditions and long-term reliability. Therefore, demands for devices with higher power rating and improved safe-operating area is ever-increasing. The present work demonstrates a new 4.5 kV PressPack IGBT by Littelfuse which achieves exceptional performance in terms of standard working conditions, SOA, and reliability. Both chip and PressPack developments are discussed in detail and, finally, the experimental results in the PressPack level are analyzed. It will be shown that the chip exhibits a short circuit ruggedness of seven times the nominal current and reverse bias ruggedness of four times the nominal current in a single chip package. Furthermore, when paralleling 34 IGBTs and 18 anti-parallel diodes in a PressPack, the ruggedness is more than twice the nominal current for reverse bias and more than four times the nominal current in short-circuit tests, respectively.