Journal of Electrostatics xxx (2012) 1e5

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Journal of Electrostatics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/elstat

A new IGBT control and drive circuit for high-power full-bridge

inverter for electrostatic precipitators
J.D. Zhu a, b, Jiaqian Liang a, Y. Lu a, C.H. Zhang a, *
a
Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, 92 Xidazhi Street, Harbin 150001, China
b
State Grid Electric Power Research Institute, Nanjing 210003, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this paper, aiming at the characteristics of high-power full-bridge inverter, a new IGBT control and
Received 1 September 2012 drive circuit is designed, in which UCC3895, a phase shift and dead-time control chip, MC33152, a high-
Received in revised form speed dual-phase driver, and PT6 isolation transformers consist the core part. The circuit can regulate its
21 November 2012
frequency, phase angle and dead-time, while possessing following features: short turn-on/off time, low-
Accepted 21 November 2012
Available online xxx
voltage peak, simplified circuit structure, high reliability and universality, etc. Now, it has been
successfully applied on the power supply for 72 kV/1 A high-frequency high-voltage electrostatic
precipitator.
Keywords:
IGBT
Ó 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Phase shift control
Switching characteristic

1. Introduction
High-power full-bridge inverter [1,2] has been widely imple-
mented in industry field, for example, laser power, high-frequency
high-voltage switching power supply for electrostatic precipitation,
and energy storage, etc. In recent years, with improving property
and reducing price of power device, there comes the possibility of
large-scale production and application of high-power inverter. As
a prominent representative of power device, IGBT has been rapidly
developed and widely applied in these years [3].
IGBT, a combination of MOSFET and bipolar transistor, is also
a combination of the respective advantages of both constituents.
IGBT has multiple advantages, involving high input-impedance,
high-speed, distinctive thermal stability and simple drive circuit
[4]. Besides, there are other advantages such as low on-state
voltage, high voltage and current endurance [5,6]. Therefore, IGBT
has been implemented more broadly in modern power electronic
technique. The implementation of qualified drive circuit leads to
following benefits: ideal switching states, shortened switching
time and less switching losses. In addition, it is also significantly
beneficial to operating efficiency, reliability, and security of device
[7]. However, as a part of switching power supply, IGBT has to work
under high voltage and current. Accordingly, how to enable high
efficiency and reliability of IGBT has become a critical and also
challenging point.
2. Typical full-bridge inverter circuit
Fig. 1 shows a typical full-bridge circuit.
This circuit is consisted of four parts: powerefrequency rectifier,
high-frequency inverter, high-frequency high-voltage transformer
and high-frequency high-voltage silicon rectifier stack. The energy
of gate is infused into a full-bridge silicon rectifier stack, in the form
of 3-phase powerefrequency AC. After rectifying and filtering the
3-phase voltage, we can get 510 V DC, which is sequentially pro-
cessed by IGBT high-frequency inverter to get high-frequency AC.
Afterwards, high-frequency high-voltage transformer is applied to
enhance the voltage, while silicon rectifier stack is used to attain
high voltage DC in the end.
3. Control and drive circuit
3.1. Circuit schematic
The schematic is consisted of 2 parts: control (Fig. 2) and drive
circuit (Fig. 3).

3.2. Operating principle

* Corresponding author. This circuit is employed to generate 4 driving signals for the full-
E-mail address: zch852@gmail.com (C.H. Zhang). bridge inverter circuit. Drive 1 and Drive 2 work respectively to

0304-3886/$ e see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.elstat.2012.11.025

Please cite this article in press as: J.D. Zhu, et al., A new IGBT control and drive circuit for high-power full-bridge inverter for electrostatic
precipitators, Journal of Electrostatics (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.elstat.2012.11.025
2 J.D. Zhu et al. / Journal of Electrostatics xxx (2012) 1e5

3 - phase
50 Hz Voltage Load
High -Frequency
& High -Voltage
Transformer

High -Frequency
Rectifier IGBT Inverter & High -Voltage
Bridge
Rectifiers

Fig. 1. Typical full-bridge inverter circuit.

drive high-side and low-side of the leading-bridge, while Drive 3
and Drive 4 correspond to the high-side and low-side of lag-bridge.
The circuit showed in Fig. 2, contains one UCC3895 and four
MC33152. Driving signals are originated from 4 output ports of
UCC3895, then pushepulled output by MC33152. Finally corre-
sponding to drive 4 IGBT respectively.
By regulating the resistance of 8th pin of UCC3895, the
frequency of driving signal can be regulated immediately. In this
paper, it has been set to 20 kHz.
DT (Dead-time) can be modified by two methods: modify RV4 in
leading-bridge, and RV5 in lag-bridge.
Phase-shift control is realized by regulating the voltage on pin
20, by changing RV1.
A stable and rational timing sequence of 4 driving signals is
attained by configuring UCC3895, which guarantees a stable driver
of IGBT.
MC33152, a high-speed, double-channels, in-phase driver, is
capable of high-current pushepull output, thus can effectively
improve the ability of driving load. In consideration of the power
consumption of MC33152, we establish parallel connection
between 2 pairs of input and output of each MC33152, attempting
to enhance the signal transmission capacity of MC33152 as much as
possible. Therefore, 4 driving signals from UCC3895, after improved
by Mc33152, can effectively ensure the sufficient energy supply for
following circuits.
In Figs. 3 and 4 drive signals are boosted by isolated trans-
formers (1:2). Then by passing through 15 V reverse series voltage
regulator tube, they are changed to around 16 V, and finally arrive at
the gate and emit electrodes of IGBT.
3.3. Switching features of drive circuit
Switching features of IGBT is shown in Fig. 4.
CGE, CGC, CCE (Stray Capacitances) exist between all electrodes of
IGBT, while LE (Stray Leakage) exists in the loop of emit electrode.
The existences of these distributed parameters, which are deter-
mined by the structure of IGBT, leave an adverse impact on the
process of turning on and off of IGBT. The following analysis is
based on Fig. 4.
Switching-on process: Focus on smaller LE, CGE and resistance of
driving circuit, in that the speed of turning-on process can be
influenced by any of these three factors.
Switching-off process: Choose IGBT with smaller CGC, CGE, in
that these parameters can both delay and impede turning off
process. On the other hand, the chargeedischarge current of
CGC, CGE can be increased by smaller resistance of driving
circuit, thus having the speed of rising and dropping of UGE
increased, too.
According to above analysis, the requirements and conditions of
driving circuit for IGBT are as follows:

Fig. 2. Control circuit.

Please cite this article in press as: J.D. Zhu, et al., A new IGBT control and drive circuit for high-power full-bridge inverter for electrostatic
precipitators, Journal of Electrostatics (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.elstat.2012.11.025
 J.D. Zhu et al. / Journal of Electrostatics xxx (2012) 1e5 3

Fig. 3. Drive circuit.

1. Since the output impedance is capacitive, IGBT is severely 3. Positive bias on gate ranges from þ12 V to þ15 V, while
sensitive to agglomeration of electric charges on gate. To negative bias ranges from 2 V to 15 V.
ensure the reliability of driving circuit, there must be 4. Actual driving resistance of IGBT driving circuit is correlated to
a discharge circuit with low impedance. the structure of the circuit and the capacity of IGBT, this
2. Attempting to maintain steep front and back edges of gate resistance often ranges from 1 to dozens of ohm. IGBT with
controlling voltage, minimize switching loss, we employ lower capacity has larger resistance.
driving source, with low impedance, to charge and discharge 5. Driving circuit should have great capacity of resisting distur-
the gate. Besides, there should be enough power from driving bance, and protect IGBT. Besides, G and E electrodes of IGBT
source on gate after switching-on IGBT, to prevent IGBT from should not be open when there is no proper static-proof action.
exiting saturation and then destroyed.
Fig. 5 shows the waveforms obtained by this design with load.
According to the waveform, positive bias is 15 V, negative bias is
13 V, while the rise time is around 50 ns, fall time is around 50 ns.
All these meet the requirement of driving IGBT.

3.4. Testing results of driving signals

3.4.1. Setting of DT
Setting of DT is divided into two parts: one for leading-bridge,
the other for lag-bridge.
The result of DT in leading-bridge and lag-bridge are showed in
Fig. 6. DT is set to 1 ms, in order to ensure that IGBT has sufficient

Fig. 4. Switching feature of IGBT. Fig. 5. Switching features of IGBT driving signals.

Please cite this article in press as: J.D. Zhu, et al., A new IGBT control and drive circuit for high-power full-bridge inverter for electrostatic
precipitators, Journal of Electrostatics (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.elstat.2012.11.025
4 J.D. Zhu et al. / Journal of Electrostatics xxx (2012) 1e5

Fig. 6. Dead zone control of leading-bridge and lag-bridge.

Fig. 7. Phase-shifting control of IGBT2 and IGBT3.

Fig. 8. Phase-shifting control of IGBT1 and IGBT4.

time of completely turning-off, therefore prevents short circuit inverter, we could regulate the duty ratio and RMS voltage by
between high-side and low-side. controlling phase-shifting. The phase-shifting control of Q2 and Q3
is shown in Fig. 7, while the phase-shifting control of Q1 and Q4 is
3.4.2. Control of phase-shifting shown in Fig. 8.
Q1 and Q4, as well as Q2 and Q3, can’t turn on and off at the
same time in practical application. ɑ, phase difference, enables the
IGBT to accomplish soft-switching control and regulates the output
power of inverter bridge at the meantime. The regulating range of ɑ
is from 0 to 180 . To get the corresponding voltage at the output of

Fig. 9. 4 driving signals of IGBT when set ɑ to a certain angle. Fig. 10. Physical map of control and drive circuit.

Please cite this article in press as: J.D. Zhu, et al., A new IGBT control and drive circuit for high-power full-bridge inverter for electrostatic
precipitators, Journal of Electrostatics (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.elstat.2012.11.025
 J.D. Zhu et al. / Journal of Electrostatics xxx (2012) 1e5 5

3.4.3. Regulating ɑ to a certain angle Acknowledgements

At certain angle, 4 driving signals of IGBT are shown in Fig. 9.
4. Application
This circuit has been successfully applied on power supply for
72 KV/1 A high-frequency, high-voltage switching electrostatic
precipitation, and keeps operating stably for a year. This validates
the reliability of the driving circuit, and also indicates an
outstanding effect, fine economic and social benefits. The circuit is
shown in Fig. 10.
5. Conclusion
An analysis and a research on IGBT control and drive circuit for
high-power full-bridge inverter are proposed in this paper, together
with a new control and drive circuit, the switching frequency is the
most important to driving circuit for IGBT. This circuit has numerous
advantages, including short turning-on/off time, low spike voltage,
stable voltage, simplified circuit structure, high reliability and
universality. The feasibility of the circuit is verified by test.
This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (60838005), and in part by the National Energy
Applied Technology Project (NY20110703-1).
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Please cite this article in press as: J.D. Zhu, et al., A new IGBT control and drive circuit for high-power full-bridge inverter for electrostatic
precipitators, Journal of Electrostatics (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.elstat.2012.11.025