Active Clamping Circuit with Status Feedback

for HV-IGBT
Ting Lu, Zhengming Zhao, Shiqi Ji, Hualong Yu, and Liqiang Yuan
State Key Laboratory of Power System, Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

Abstract--Active clamping circuit can effectively suppress In this paper, an active clamping circuit with high
the overvoltage of series-connected insulated gate bipolar speed status feedback is proposed and applied to series
transistor (IGBT). However, long duration operations and connected HV-IGBTs. The effect of the active clamping
frequent actions of active clamping circuit would lead to circuit and the voltage balancing performance of the
high losses of the circuit and IGBT, which seriously imperils series connection circuit are verified by experiments.
the efficiency and safety of the system, especially in the
applications of high voltage IGBT (HV-IGBT). In this paper,
a novel active clamping circuit with status feedback is II. ACTIVE CLAMPING CIRCUIT
proposed for series-connected HV-IGBTs. A high speed A novel active clamping circuit for series-connected
status feedback sub-circuit is designed for transforming the HV-IGBTs, which includes a high speed status feedback
operation status of active clamping circuit into optical signal sub-circuit, is designed as shown in Fig. 1.
and transferring it to control system. According to the
feedback signal, microcontroller is able to activate the
protection procedure or regulate the drive signal timely in
order to restrain the action of active clamping circuit.
Experimental results verify the validity of the proposed
circuit.

Index Terms--Active clamping, HV-IGBT, series

connection, status feedback.

I. INTRODUCTION
As an effective scheme for suppressing the
overvoltage of insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT),
active clamping circuit is widely used in the protection of
IGBT and other applications such as voltage balancing
for series connected IGBTs [1-4]. When the voltage on
IGBT exceeds the threshold value, active clamping
circuit injects current into the gate of IGBT, thus the high
voltage on IGBT is restrained [5-13]. However, during
the operation of active clamping circuit, IGBT is forced
to active region. Therefore long duration operations and
frequent actions of active clamping circuit not only result
in high switching loss of IGBT but also increase the loss
of active clamping circuit [14, 15]. When active clamping
circuit is applied to high voltage IGBT (HV-IGBT),
because of the high power density of device, this problem
becomes more prominent.
If control system is aware of the operation status of Fig. 1. Active clamping circuit with status feedback.
active clamping circuit, microcontroller can activate the
protection procedure or regulate the drive signal in time This active clamping circuit is a combination and
so as to prevent the active clamping circuit from long improvement of the basic Zener diode active clamping
time operations and frequent actions. In this case, the scheme and the scheme of increasing Miller capacitor.
high losses of HV-IGBT and active clamping circuit will Defining VZ1 is the total breakdown voltage of the series
be avoided. connected Zener diodes Z1 to Zn, VZ2 is the total
Considering the operation status of active clamping breakdown voltage of Z11 to Z1m, assuming that the
circuit is very short, commonly from tens of nanoseconds collector-emitter voltage VCE approximately equals to the
to hundreds of nanoseconds, the response speed of status collector-gate voltage VCG of HV-IGBT, the switching off
feedback circuit must be high enough. The feedback process of HV-IGBT with the active clamping circuit can
status has large effect on the safe operation of HV-IGBT. be divided into three phases, as shown in Fig. 2.
Therefore, the measurement must be accurate and has
strong anti-EMI capability.

Fig. 2. Switching off process with active clamping circuit.
In phase1, VCE<VZ1, all the Zener diodes are blocked,
thus the active clamping circuit doesn’t effect on the
switching off of HV-IGBT, VCE increases rapidly.
In phase2, VZ1<VCE<VZ1+VZ2, Zener diodes Z1 to Zn are
broken down, capacitor C1 is charged gradually, therefore
the rising rate of VCE is reduced and the voltage
imbalance is restrained dynamically.
In phase3, VCE>VZ1+VZ2, Zener diodes Z1 to Zn and Z11
to Z1m are all broken down. Considering the voltage drop
on R2, VCE is clamped at the voltage which is a little
higher than VZ1+VZ2.
During phase2 and phase3, the active clamping circuit
increases the gate voltage of HV-IGBT and makes it
operate in active region, thus the voltage spike of VCE is
suppressed. However, in these two phases, the switching
loss of HV-IGBT increases rapidly and the switching
speed is slowed down. Consequently, long time
operations and frequent actions of the active clamping
circuit must be avoided in order to reduce the loss and the
switching time of HV-IGBT.
For this reason, the operation status of active clamping
circuit is fed back to control system. According to the
feedback signal, microcontroller could adjust the drive
signal of HV-IGBT in order to achieve voltage balance.
In this way, high voltage spike of VCE and voltage
imbalance are restrained actively, then the active
clamping circuit will not conduct for long time or operate
frequently.
Considering the operation condition of status feedback
sub-circuit, the features below should be satisfied:
1) High speed. The time scale of active clamping
feedback signal is very short, commonly from tens of
nanoseconds to hundreds of nanoseconds. Therefore, the
devices in the feedback circuit should have fast response
and high transfer speed. In order to transform and transfer
the feedback signal timely, high speed comparator
(ADCMP600), 10MBd fiber optic transmitter (HFBR-
1528) and receiver (HFBR-2528) are adopted. The fiber
optic transmitter is driven directly by the comparator.
2) Accuracy. The feedback signal has significant effect
on the safe operation of HV-IGBT and the voltage
balancing performance. However, the signal distortions
are introduced both in sampling and signal transfer
processes. Therefore, the precision of the status feedback
sub-circuit must be estimated and calibrated according to
the test results.
3) Anti-EMI. In HV-IGBT applications, the intensive
electromagnetism pulse causes intense EMI which may
disturb the signal of status feedback sub-circuit.
Hysteresis comparison link and optical fiber guarantee
the reliable operation of the status feedback sub-circuit in
the environment with intense EMI. The TTL/CMOS level
is selected instead of PSEL level. The signal is also
transmitted by fiber optic which is more reliable and has
strong anti-EMI capability.
As the current in active clamping circuit rises, the
voltage drop in the sampling resistor R3 increases and the
comparator output becomes high to drive the fiber optic.
Assuming R4/R5 = R6/R7, the threshold values of active
clamping current ITH1 and ITH2 are derived as
5R4
I TH1 = (1)
R5 R3
I TH2 = 0 (2)
The status feedback sub-circuit can be tested by
applying a square wave voltage on the sampling resistor
R3 and measuring the output signal of the fiber optic
receiver. The input signal is generated by a signal
generator. The test waveforms under different input
signal frequencies are shown in Fig. 3.
6
4
2

III. STATUS FEEDBACK SUB-CIRCUIT 0 Tin

-2
The status feedback sub-circuit of the active clamping -2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
-6
2

circuit is illustrated in the frame with dotted line in Fig. 1. x 10

10
During phase2 and phase3 of the switching off process,
the active clamping circuit injects current into the gate of 5

HV-IGBT. When the current of active clamping circuit

0 Tout
(Iclamp) exceeds threshold ITH1, the feedback signal
received by the microcontroller turns into high level. -5
-2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
After Iclamp falling down to threshold ITH2, the feedback -6
x 10

signal turns to low level. In this way, the status feedback (a) f = 1MHz.
sub-circuit informs the control system of the operation
status of active clamping circuit.
 6
could calibrate the sampled operation time of the active
clamping circuit accurately, which is the basis of the
4
precise control on drive signal of HV-IGBT.
2

0
TABLE I
TEST DATA OF STATUS FEEDBACK SUB-CIRCUIT
-2
-1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 f Rise delay Fall delay Tin Tout
-6
x 10 1MHz 80ns 95ns 491ns 506ns
10 5MHz 80ns 93ns 93ns 106ns
10MHz 81ns 92.4ns 43.6ns 55ns
5 16MHz 82ns 90ns 26ns 34ns

-5
-1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
-6
x 10
The proposed active clamping circuit with status
(b) f = 5MHz. feedback is implemented and applied in a HV-IGBT
series connection experimental platform with Buck
6 topology. As shown in Fig. 4, the active clamping circuit
4 is connected to the drive circuit of HV-IGBT. Each HV-
2 IGBT is packed with its passive snubber circuit and
0 active clamping circuit, The DC bus voltage is 5kV and
-2
load current is up to 600A. The load of the platform is a
-1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
-6
1
7mH inductor.
x 10
10

-5
-1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
-6
x 10

(c) f = 10MHz.

-2
-1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
-6
x 10
10
(a) HV-IGBT, drive circuit and active clamping circuit.
5

-5
-1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
-6
x 10

(d) f = 16MHz.
Fig. 3. Input and output waveforms of status feedback sub-circuit.

A part of the test data are listed in Table I, where rise

delay is the delay time between input and output of the
status feedback sub-circuit when the input voltage
changes from low level to high level, fall delay represents
the delay time between input and output of the sub-circuit
when the input voltage changes from high level to low
level, Tin and Tout refer to the pulse width measured at
input and output of the status feedback sub-circuit,
respectively. It can be concluded from the test results that
the response of the status feedback sub-circuit is very fast,
which guarantee the instantaneity of sampling. The delay
time between input and output of the sub-circuit keeps (b) HV-IGBT module.
approximately constant with different input signal
frequencies. According to the test data, microcontroller
 through the status feedback sub-circuit. With the
sampling of status feedback signal, the microcontroller
adjusts the switching on time and switching off time of
HV-IGBT drive signal actively. Therefore, the voltage
imbalance is restrained effectively. After several
switching cycle, the HV-IGBT series connection circuit
achieves voltage balance, active clamping will not
operate after that. Hence, long time operations and
frequent actions of active clamping circuit are avoided.
Fig. 6 presents the comparative experimental results of
status feedback.

(c) Cabinet and load.

Fig. 4. HV-IGBT series connection experimental platform.

Vce(V)
Fig. 5 shows the experimental waveforms of the
proposed active clamping circuit with status feedback,
where Vout refers to the feedback signal received by the
microcontroller. Waveforms of Vce show the voltage
imbalance on T1 and T2. In Fig. 5(a), the voltage
distribution on T1 and T2 has slight imbalance while it is
more serious in Fig. 5(b).
Vge(V)
Vce(V)

Ic(A)
Vge(V)

(a) Without status feedback.

Ic(A)
Vout(V)

(a) Slight voltage imbalance.

(b) Serious voltage imbalance.

Fig. 5. Experimental waveforms of active clamping circuit.

As shown in Fig. 5, the active clamping circuit

suppresses the voltage spike effectively when serious (b) With status feedback.
voltage imbalance occurs. The operation status of the Fig. 6. Comparative experimental waveforms of status feedback.
active clamping circuit is obtained timely and accurately
 V. CONCLUSIONS
In order to avoid the high losses caused by long time
operations and frequent actions of active clamping circuit,
a novel active clamping circuit with high speed status
feedback sub-circuit for HV-IGBT was proposed and
applied to the voltage balancing of HV-IGBT series
connection. Experimental results proved the validity of
the proposed active clamping circuit and verified the
voltage balancing performance of the system.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Authors thank the financial support of the Key
Program of National Natural Science Foundation of
China (50737002) and Tsinghua State Key Lab Program
(SKLD11M03). Authors also thank the support of Delta
Electronics, Inc.
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