A Practical SPICE Macro Model for the IGBT

Member, IEEE, and Lun-Jun Hsu

Ying-Yu TZOU,
Power Electronics & Motion Control Lab.
Institute of Control Engineering
National Chiao Tung Univ., Taiwan, R.O.C.

Abstracl--A practical SPICE macro model of the insulated

gate bipolar transistor (IGBT)is presented id this paper. The
f
/
proposed IGBT behavior model is constructed based on an 4
equivalent circuit of the device physical construction and its
relevant parameters can be derived from the given data sheet.
The proposed new modcl is especially suitable for the design of
gate drive and snubber circuit by using circuit simulation. It is
also very useful for the simulation of power electronics system
in a system level. Simulation and experimental results of the
IGBT switching behavior have been obtained to verify the
proposed IGBT macro model.

L INTRODUCTION Collector electrode

High frequency converters are desirable for high- Fig. 1. Physical structure ofthe IGBT.
performance power electronic systems. The insulated gate
bipolar transistor (IGBT) is a monolithic BI-MOS transistor
that has a number of advantages compared with power
MOSFET and BJT [I]. The IGBT is a hybrid power device
Emitter
P Gats

that combines the advantages of a MOSFET (fast switching

and low drive power) and a BJT (low conduction losses) and
is constructed in virtually the same as a MOSFET. The basic
physical structure of a N-channel IGBT is shown in Fig. 1,
and its cross section simplified equivalent circuit is shown in
Fig. 2(a), and its device symbol is shown in Fig. 20). The
IGBT epitaxy is as thick and as lightly doped as in the FET.
However, there is a major difference, the wafer starting
material is p-type instead of n-type. The extra pn junction
forms injection carrier (holes) into the n-epitaxial region,
reducing its resitivity and decreasing the on-state voltage
drop of the device. This process is called conductivity
modulation which provides benefits of larger current-
handling capability, reduced temperature coefficient, less
forward conduction voltage drop, smaller reverse transfer
capacitance, and less gate charge. The drawback of
conductivity modulation is the increase in device switching
times compared to the unmodified MOSFET.'
Because of these inherent good characteristics, IGBT finds
its wide applications in high frequency power converting
systems. In particular, due to its large current-handling b,
This work WBS supported by National Science Council, Taipei, Taiwan, Fig. 2. N-channel IGBT. (a) cross section and its equivalent circuit,
R.O.C. Project no. NSC82-0404-E009-210. @) simplified equivalent circuit and the device symbol.
The authors are with the Department of Control Engineering, National
Chiao Tung University, 30050, Hsinchu, Taiwan, R0.C.
capability, the IGBT is especially suitable in applications of
0-7803-0891-3/93$03.00 0 lW3IEEE high frequency (20 kHz) medium power (1 to 100 kw)

762
P W M inverters and motor drives. Power semiconductor
devices are the most important elements in a power
electronics apparatus. However, the IGBT device model is
sull not available in most circuit simulation s o h a r e , such
as SPICE, SABER, EMTP, etc. Until recently, various
modeling techniques of IGBT are developed for the purpose
of computer aided analysis of power converters. Hefner [2]
developed an IGBT model based on the device physical G'0-
construction. In Hefner's approach, all the model parameters
are correlated with the device parameters, such as device
active area, modulation diffusion length, electron and hole
mobility, etc. But that model is suitable for device engineer
and is too complicated for application engineer to perform
system level simulation to design the gate drive and snubber
circuit. In [3] an equivalent circuit oriented macro model
Fig. 4. Macn, model of the IGBT.
was developed, but still, its model parameters can not be
readily available from the given data sheet. In order to solve
this problem, a practical IGBT macro model is developed in
this paper. In the proposed modeling technique, the model A. Voltage Controlled Current Source I,,,
parameters can be readily obtained by using the given device The equivalent circuit of an n-channel IGBT shown in
data sheet. Simulation and experimental results are given to Fig. 4 can be described by the following equations:
illustrate the applicability of the proposed macro model.

n. IGB'C MACROMODEL I , =-IQ

Because of the n-channel IGBT, composed by a n-channel hFE
MOSFET and a pnp transistor, has a much wider safe
operation area (SOA) capability than its counter part p- I , =IDSIP
channel type [4],therefore, the usually used IGBTs are all n- =(l+h,,)I, (3)
channel type. Fig. 3 shows the simplified structure and its where
equivalent circuit of the IGBT by neglecting the N+ layer
Vb : PlW transistor base-emitter voltage
between P+ and N- of the collector electrode. Fig. 4 shows
the proposed macro model for the IGBT. Each parameter of I, : MOSFET drain current
the macro model can be directly derived from the given data : Conductivity modulated N layer resistance
RNCMOD)
sheet of a commercially available IGBT.
&.,: MOSFET channel resistance.
It can be observed from (1) - (3) the collect current I,
are determined by the value of 1,. According to the input
characteristic of IGBT, the relation between I, and VGscan
be divided into three operation regions listed as the
following [6]:

Cutoff region: ( V,, - V, < 0)

I, =o (4)

Linear region: ( V,, - V, > V,, )

I , = K( VGS- v , ) Z ( l + G )
Collector VA
Fig. 3. Derive the equivalent macro circuit model fiom its physical Saturation region: (VGs- V, c V,, )
cons(mction
1, = K( v,, -q*
where

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 5 : threshold voltage
VA: Early voltage
It follows from the above relationships that ID, I, and
VCE are all functions of VGs,i.e., the switching behavior of
IGBT is controlled by VGs. However, the related parameters,
K, h,, and V, are generally not available in the data sheet
and are dflicult to measure. Since the input characteristics
of IGBT is similar to that of power MOSFET and its output
characteristics is similar to that of BJT, a new macro model
for IGBT derived from its physical construction and -
COLLECTOR EMITTER VOLTAGE v= (v)
input/output characteristics is shown in Fig. 4. (a)

B. Junction Capacitance CcG, C,, , and CGE

80
IC - v,
COMMON
The capacitors CCG,CGE,and C,, in the constructed
model shown in Fig. 4 can be obtained by considering the
physical structure and input characteristic of the IGBT. The
input capacitance Cia,reverse capacitance ,C , and output
capacitance C
, of IGBT are highly nonlinear to the collect-
emitter voltage V,, as shown in Fig. 5(a). The model
capacitor CCG,CGE,C ,, are finctions of Ck, ,C , and. C,
0 2 4 8 8 10
These model parameters are defined in look-up tables by
curve fitting using SPICE. Because the nonlinear behavior of
-
COLLECTOR EMITTER VOLTAGE ,v (v)
@)
the junction capacitor is modeled from the given data sheet,
input/out characteristics can be well examined. These
junction capacitances are functions of VcE, therefore, they 80

can be modeled as voltage controlled capacitors. The

equivalent circuit of a voltage controlled capacitor is shown 80
in Fig. 6, this equivalent circuit is used in this macro model
to simulate the junction capacitance of an IGBT. I.
(A)
c' P RGE 9 and ' 0
20
The saturation region in the I-V characteristic curve as
shown in Fig. 5 @ ) can be viewed as a straight line and 0

modeled by the tum-on resistor for fixed V,,.During 0 4 0 12 18 ?o

the transient of switching, kNvaries with VGE and the
relation is constructed into a look-up table. It is well known
that for fixed VGE the maximum possible current flowing
through the IGBT denoted by I,,, will be near a constant
value as shown in Fig. 5@). In the proposed modeling
strategy, a table describing the relation between I,, and V,,
can also be established. Since the current flowing through
the device depends mainly on load, an anti-parallel diode
must be added to provide a path for balancing the current
flowing from collector to emitter. The anti-parallel diode is
assumed to be ideal. The resistor ro paralleling with the VGE-
controlled current source I , represents the early effect of
BJT output characteristic. As shown in the basic IGBT
-
COLLECTOR EMITTER VOLTAGE v= (v)
(c)
Fig.5 . IGBT characteristics curves fiom a given data sheet.
construction, the p' and N junction in collector side is
modeled as a diode.
RONrepresents the channel conduction resistance between
collect and emitter, this parameter determines the main
resistance of the power device. When the gate voltage is
below the threshold voltage, the IGBT is in the OFF state
and this resistance is very large. Essentially, the conduction
resistance R,, is a ratio of VCEand I,, which is further a
function of the gate voltage VG5.The characteristics of the
conduction resistance is shown in Fig. 5@), it is also can be
observed that it is also a function of temperature. For a

764
specified temperature, RONcan be measured as a function of TABLE I ,C ,GGE,and ,C
, vs. VcB
V,,, a set of corresponding values are listed in Table 11. With
a specified gate voltage, the conduction resistance can be
calculated by using interpolation. This conduction resistance 0.5 2300 1100 2256
can be modeled as a voltage controlled resistor, its 1 2250 1130 2048
II II
I I
equivalent circuit is shown in Fig. 7.
R,, is the dc resistance between gate and emitter, this I
II
2
3
1
I
2150
1900 I
1150
1200 I
1751
1550
II
parameter determines the gate leakage current, its value
usually in the range of several mega ohms and almost makes
no difference to the dynamic responses, but it determines the
I 1200
750
I
I
1800
1550
I
I 706
1333 II
insulation resistance between gate and emitter.
ro is the output resistance, its characteristic is similar to
the output resistance of a bipolar power transistor, and it is
also resulted by the Early effect. This resistance has almost
no influence to the switching dynamics of the IGBT and its
value is in the range of several kilo ohms.
There are several resistors in series with the junction
capacitors C,, , C,, , and C,, ,these resistors are used to 1272
prevent numerical divergence and their values are set at 0.0 1 60 26 1274
ohm. 70 1275 85
II I I II
I I 1
I 80
90 I
24
23 I
1276
1277 1

R.= 0,00001

Cnr
+
I-
T
300

TABLE I1 RONvs. V,,

1283

Fig. 6. Equivalent circuit for the voltage controlled capacitor.

9
I

0.06

TABLE I11 Iconvs. VGE

1
6.7 0.7 11 22
Fig. 7. Equivalent cucuit for the voltage controlled resistor. 6.8 1.0 12 30
6.9 1.5 ~ 13 35 i

7.7 4.0 16 60
8 6.0 20 70

765
 ............
R = 10.5 ohm L=68 uH

14 T 210
I2 120 180
10 100 150
8 80 120 <
2-
6' 60,
h 90,
8
9 <
4 4 o y 60-
2 20 30
0 0 0
-24 . : . : ~ : . : . : . : . : . : . : . -20 -30
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10

TLnc (us) Timc (us)

(a) Simulation results. (a) Simulation results.

R = 10.5 ohm
I-tee 1
............

9 21 0
8 180
7
.' 100 150
6
120
- 5
s4 90
d
2 3 60
3
2
30
1
0 0

0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10
Time (U) Tbnc (U)
(b) Experimental results (b) Experimental results

Fig. 8. Turn ONIOFF responses of the IGBT with a resistive load Fig. 9. Tum ON/OFF responses at an inductive load (a) simulation
(a) simulation and @) experimental results. and @) experimmtal results.

VERIFICATION OF THE MACRO MODEL
In order to venfy the validity of the proposed macro IGBT
model, an IGBT-GT25JlO1 from Toshiba has been chosen
for simulation and experiment. The simulation and
experimental results for resistive load and inductive load are
shown in Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 respectively. Fig. 8 shows the
simulation and experimental results of the IGBT under
ON/OFF switching condition with a resistive load. Fig. 9.
shows the same conditions but with an inductive load. It can
be observed from Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 that the simulation results
are very close to the experimental results under various
operating conditions. This validates the correctness of the
proposed macro model.
Iv.CONCLUSIONS
A practical macro model of the IGBT based on an equivalent
circuit model has been presented in this paper. This macro
model can be constructed according to the given data sheet.
Simulation and experimental results validate the accuracy of
the proposed macro model. Because the proposed IGBT
behavior model is constructed based on an equivalent circuit
of the device physical construction and its relevant
parameters can be derived from the given data shcet,
therefore, it is very convenient for practical engineers in the
design of gate drive and snubber circuit for IGBT by using
circuit simulation. It is also very useful for the simulation of
power electronics system in a system level.
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H. Yilmaz, K. Owyang, M. F. Chang. J. L. Benjamin, and W. R. V. Dell,
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A R. Jr. Heher, "Analytical modeling of device-circuit interactions for
the power insulated gale bipolar transistor (IGBT)," IEEE Trans. Ind.
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F. Mihalic, et al., "IGBT SPICE marw model,"IEEEIECON Conr Rec.,
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M. F. Chang. et af.. "Comparison of N and P-channel IGTs," IEDM
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B. J. Baliga, "Analysis of insulated gate transistor turn-off
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T. Rope, et al., "Short-circuit capability o f IGBT (COMFET)
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S. Yuvarajan, "Switchingcharacteristics of an IGBT," IEEE US Annual
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