IGBTs need to be immediately turned off when a short circuit occurs [1]. This paper discusses the optimized gate control in this emergency turn-off process. The optimized gate waveform minimizes the energy loss, hence the heat generation, while keepin...
IGBTs need to be immediately turned off when a short circuit occurs [1]. This paper discusses the optimized gate control in this emergency turn-off process. The optimized gate waveform minimizes the energy loss, hence the heat generation, while keeping the maximum collectoremitter voltage overshoot within a certain allowable value. The optimized waveform is found by theoretical analysis and is verified by measurements for the first time. Analytical expressions are derived for the optimized control, which explains well the experimental results. The optimized gate waveform is realized only by a digital gate driver (DGD) whose output drivability is programmable over 64 strength levels. The DGD decreases the energy loss by 22% compared with the conventional resistor gate driver [2,3,4].