a POWER ELECTRONICS eo athe base terminal since the base isnot accessible, Under such a conten, the only way to turn off the BUT is to interrupt the flow of drain current external to the oer MOSFET Th (2) Safe Operating Arca (SOA), Fig. 4.10 shows the SOA of a power Laie following thee factors limit the SOA of the lOSPET. © the maximum drain current Ipy (i) the internal Uynction temperature 7; which is governed by the power dissipation in the device and (i) the breakdown voltage BV pss. ‘These limiting factors are analogous to those of 4 Bat. The MOSFET does not have any second break down limitation as in the case of BIT and henee it is not shown, in Fig. 4.10 givi one ig. 4.10 giving the SOA of power For switch mode applieatis yf th ‘ea (Vos) 01 os) MosrRe ° ipplications, the SOA of the | }8 square, as shown in Fig. 4.10, For 40, SOA of an n-channel MOSFET, there is no distinction between forward bias F194" : ‘erment mode MOSFET, and reverse bias SOA since they are iderticel mane 4.7. Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) “insulated Gate Bipotar Transistor (GBT) This device combines the merits of both MOSFET and BJT. Thus it has (@® high input impedance as in @ MOSFET and (i) low on-state power loss as in a BJT. Further iy is fre from Second breakdown problem present in BJT. An IGBT is also sometimes referre to fa etal Toate Semiconductor Insulated Gate Transistor (MOSIGT), Conductivity Modulated FET (COMFET) or Gain Modulated FET (GAMFET) or Insulated Gate Transistor acn). Basic Structure. Fig. 4.11 gives the basie structure which is essentially similar to that of power MOSFET. The main difference is that n* substrate layer working as drain in power MOSFET is substituted in the IGBT hy a p* substrate layer working as the collector. Tn p* substrate C$ Collector Fig. 4.11. Basic structure of IGBT. similarity with power MOSFET, an IGBT also has thousands of power MOSFET units formed and appropriately connected on the single silicon chip. Fig. 4.12 (a) gives the equivalent circuit. The three layers p*, transistor @, while layers n°, p and n° form an npn transistor Qo. The two transistors may te connected as shown in Fig, 4.12 (a) to give the equivalent circuit of IGBT. Fig. 4.12 (b) gives the eireuit eymbol with gate (@), emitter (B) and collector (C) as its $ terminals instead of gate, source and drain for a MOSFET. n> and p form a pnpPOWER MOSFETs or be (a) Equivalent circuit (8) Circuit symbot Fig. 4.12. Equivalent circuit and circuit symbol of IGBT. Operation and Characteristic Curves. Fig. 4.13 (a) gives the basic eireuit arrange- ment for finding the static characteristic curves of IGBT. Fig. 4.13 (b) gives the static fe- Vex (output) characteristics while Fig. 4.13 (c) gives on Ie - Vex (transfer) characteristic. ke ! 1 1] a het 8Ycen Velo OC) veel —— OMe oF ye ce voce Veer YE Reverse—-[-— Forward, blocking conducting Jtct=> (a) Circuit connection (0) Static Ic- Voce characteristic (0 Transfer characteristic, Fig. 4.13. Static characteristic curves of |GBT. In IGBT, when Vox is negative, there is no collector current because the junction J gets reverse biased. This reverse blocking capability of the device is shown in the output charac- of an IGBY in Fig. 4.13 (b) for negative value of Vcr. When a positive voltage is applied to the collector terminal with the gate short circuited to the emitter terminal, middle junction Jo gets reverse biased and the device operates in the forward blocking mode. However, if a positive gate-to-emitter voltage of sufficient magnitude is applied to invert the surface of the p base region under the gate, the device switches to its forward conducting state because current can now flow from the emitter n* region into the n” base region via the inversion layer. In this forward conducting state, junction ds is forward biased and the substrate p* region injects holes into the n™ base region. When the forward bias is increased, the injected hole concentration increases until it exceeds the background doping level of the n” base. In this region of operation, the characteristics are similar to those of a forward biased p-i-n diode. ‘These devices can be operated at high current densities even when designed to support high blocking voltages. The IGBT forward conduction characteristics will resemble those of p-i-n diode as long as the gate bias is sufficiently large to produce enough inversion layer charge for providing electrons to the n~ base region. If the inversion layer conductivity is low, sizeable voltage drop occurs aeross this region as in MOSFETs. At this point, the forward current will saturate and the device operates in its active region. Fig. 4.13 (b) shows the composite electrical characteristics.| : yP plots collector Transfer characteristics. The transfor characteristic of IGBT curre : istic is sim To against gate-emitter voltage Voy as shown in Fig. 4.13 a en the theesholt wt to the transfer characteristic of a power MOSFET, When Vee is les blocks the forward vol Yogn the IGBT isin the OFP state, When IGB' is off, junction dz bloeks the for blocks it and in case reverse voltage appears across collector and emitter, the J . rat cteristics of ans witching Characteristics, Fig, 4.14 shows the switching chara “nicBr ‘uring turn-on and turn-off. Noe] i Noe ° Yor 09V ce 1 osig tet ook Oa) apie tyes OD oy at Fig. 4.14, Turn-on and turn-off characteristics of ISBT. , Turn-on Time ton. This is defined as the time between the instants of forward blocking to forward on-state. The turn-on time is constituted by the delay time tg, and rise time t,. Thug ‘on = tan + t,. The delay time is the time for the collector-emitter voltage to fall from Vee to 0.9 Vee where Ves is the initial collector-emitter voltage. Alternatively delay time tay is defined as the time taken by the collector current to rise from its initial leakage current value Iory to O.1 Ic where Ic is the final value of collector current, Rise time 1, is the time taken by collector-emitter voltage to fall from 0.9Vog to 0.1Vcp. Alternatively rise time may also by Gefined as the time taken by the collector current ig to rise from 0.1 Io to its final value Io, After time tin, collector current i, stays at final value Ic and the collector-emitter voltage veg stays at conduction drop Vega. ‘Turn-off Time toy. It consists of the following three parts (i) delay time tay, (i) initial fall time tq and (iii) final fall time tp. Thus tor = tay + th + tp Delay time tay It is the time during which gate voltage falls from steady state value Vg, to threshold value Vggr. During this same interval tap the collector current falls from Ie to 0.9Ic. At the end of ty, collector-emitter voltage ugg begins to rise. The initial fall time tp. This is defined as the time during which collector current falls from 90% to 20% of its initial value Ic or the time during which collector-emitter voltage vg rises from Vogizqy t0 0.1V cp. ons(4.6) The final fall time tp. This is the time during which the collector current. falls from 20% to 10% of Ic or the time during which vog rises from 0.1Voe to final value Vog,POWER MOSFETs 53 Applications of BUT. IGBTs are being increasingly used in medium power applica- tions such as de and ac motor drives, UPS systems, power supplies, drives for solenoids, relays and contactors etc. IGBTs are more costly than BJs. But in comparison with BJTs, they have the merits of lower gate requirements, lower switching losses and lower snubber circuit requirements. IGBT converters are smaller in size and cost and are more efficient in com- parison with those using BJTs. IGBT induction motor drives using 15-20 kHz switching frequencies are being increasingly preferred in application where audio noise is objectionable. Because of the above merits, IGBTs are fast replacing BJT's in large number of applications. Currently IGBTs are available upto 1200 V, 500 A ratings. REVIEW QUESTIONS 1, Compare the fabrication and performance of n-channel MOSFETs and p-channel MOSFETs. 2. What are the merits of MOSFETs? 8. Describe the structure and working of n-channel enhancement MOSFET. 4. Describe the structure and operation of n-channel VDMOS power MOSFET. 5. (a) Give the circuit arrangement for obtaining static /-V characteristics of n-channel enhancement power MOSFET. ®) Draw and discuss the output characteristics and transfer characteristics ofn-channelenhancement power MOSFET. 6. With the help of suitable voltage and current waveforms, discuss the switching characteristics of power MOSFET. 7. Comment on (a) maximum allowable gate source voltage Vas(max) and (6) maximum allowable drain source voltage BVpss of a power MOSFET, 8. Discuss the on-state conduction losses of a power MOSFET. 9. Discuss the method of paralleling of power MOSFETs. 10. Comment on the formation and problems created by the pars 11. Discuss the safe operating area (SOA) of a power MOSFET. 12. Describe the basic structure of Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT). Give its equivalent circuit and circuit symbol. 18. Draw and discuss(a) the I~ Vog staticcharacteristies and (b) static transfer characteristicsof an IGBT. 14, Draw and discuss the switching characteristies of an IGBT. MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS Pick up the most appropriate answer from the given four alternatives. 1. Consider the following statements: 1. p-channel MOSFETs are easy to fabricate compared with n-channel MOSFETs. 2. p-channel MOSFETs have low on-resistance than n-channel MOSFETs. 3. n-channel MOSFETs have higher switching speed than p-channel MOSFETs. Of the above statements, the following are correct : tic BJT formed in a power MOSFET. (a) Land2 @)2and3 (Land 3 (@) all the three. 2. Ann-channel VDMOS power MOSFET is a : (a) 3 layer device (©) 4 layer n* pn” n* device (¢)4 layer p* n p”p* device (a) 5 layer device. 8. Inan n-channel VDMOS power MOSFET, n* source region is typically doped to the density of : (@) 10 em* (&) 10" em (©) 10" cm (@) 10" cm, 4, Inana-channel VDMOS power MOSFET, n” drift region is typically doped to the density of : (a) 10 to10% cm — (6) 10"*to. 10" em = (e) 10" to 10" em (d) 10" to 10" em,