Advanced Power Semiconductor Devices

Unit 4 : Firing and Protecting

Circuits
Base driving for Power
BJT

Prepared By,
Ambalatharasu A
B.E/EEE
Power BJT
• The transistor which is used for controlling large
voltage and current is a Power BJT.
• Power BJT has current carrying capacity in Amps
where as amplifier type of BJT has less rating than
Power varieties.
• The power BJT blocks a high voltage in the off state
and high current carrying capacity in the on-state.
• The power handling capacity is very high.
• It is also known as a voltage-current control device .
Power BJT
• Power BJT has two power terminals, collector and
emitter, and a control terminal called base.
• It operates in 4 regions based on the supplies given
to the transistor.
• Cut-off,
• active,
• quasi saturation,
• hard saturation
Why Base Driving Control?
• A Power BJT switching a large current needs a base
drive current sufficient to keep the transistor
turned ON.
• The current gain may be quite low, so the base
drive may will be 10% of the load current.
• At turn-off there will be a large stored charge in the
base. This stored charge must be removed, for that
a reverse voltage is applied to the base at turn-off
to help remove the stored charge by conduction
through the base connection.
• To enable rapid turn-on, increased base drive.
Base Drive Control
Desirable features of a base drive,
• Fast rising current to turn on the device fast.
• Fast falling current to turn off the device quickly.
• Reduced switching losses.
• Overriding protection (during fault).
Types of optimizing base drive,
Turn-on Control.
Turn-off Control.
Proportional Base Control.
Base Drive Current
• Antisaturation Control
Base Drive Control
• Optimization is required to increase switching speeds.
• ton can be reduced by allowing base current peaking
during turn on, resulting in low forces β at the
beginning.
• After turn on, F (F=ICS/IB) can be increased to a
sufficiently high value to maintain the transistor in
quasi-saturation region.
• toff can be reduced by reversing base current and
allowing base current peaking during turn off since
increasing IB2 decreases storage time.
Turn on Control

• When input voltage is turned on, the base current

is limited by resistor R1 and therefore initial value
of base current and the capacitor voltage are,
Turn on Control
• Therefore,
• Once input voltage VB becomes zero, the base-
emitter junction is reverse biased and C1 discharges
through R2.
• The discharging time constant is τ2=R2C1
• To allow sufficient charging and discharging time,
the width of base pulse must be τ1 ≥ 5τ1 and off
period of the pulse must be τ2 ≥ 5τ2
• The maximum switching frequency is
Turn off Control

• If the input voltage is changed to during turn-off the

capacitor voltage Vc is added to V2 as reverse voltage across
the transistor. There will be base current peaking during
turn off. As the capacitor C1 discharges, the reverse voltage
will be reduced to a steady state value, V2.
• If different turn-on and turn-off characteristics are required,
a turn-off circuit using (C2,R3,R4 ) may be added. The diode
D1 isolates the forward base drive circuit from the reverse
base drive circuit during turn off.
Proportional Base Control

• This type of control has advantages over the constant drive

circuit. If the collector current changes due to change in
load demand, the base drive current is changed in
proportion to collector current.
• When switch S1 is turned on a pulse current of short
duration would flow through the base of transistor Q1 and
Q1 is turned on into saturation.
Proportional Base Control
• Once the collector current starts to flow, a
corresponding base current is induced due to
transformer action.The transistor would latch on
itself and S1 can be turned off.
• The turns ratio is N2/N1 = IC / IB
• For proper operation of the circuit, the magnetizing
current which must be much smaller than the
collector current should be as small as possible.
• The switch S1 can be implemented by a small signal
transistor and additional arrangement is necessary
to discharge capacitor C1 and reset the transformer
core during turn-off of the power transistor.
Antisaturation Control

• If a transistor is driven hard, the storage time which is

proportional to the base current increases and the switching
speed is reduced.
• The storage time can be reduced by operating the transistor
in soft saturation rather than hard saturation. This can be
accomplished by clamping CE voltage to a pre-determined
level and the collector current is given by
VCM is the clamping voltage and VCM > VCE(sat)
Antisaturation Control
• Base current,
• Collector Current, Ic = IB = IL.
• Writing the loop equation for the input base circuit,

This means that the CE vo

raised above saturation le
there are no excess carrie
base and storage time is r
Antisaturation Control
• Load current,

• Collector Current with clamping,

• The clamping action thus results a reduced collector current

and almost elimination of the storage time. At the same
time, a fast turn-on is accomplished.
• However, due to increased VCE , the on-state power
dissipation in the transistor is increased, whereas the
switching power loss is decreased.
Applications of Power BJT
• Switched Mode Power Supply (SMPS)
• Power Amplifier
• Relay and Drivers
• AC motor speed controller
• DC/AC inverter
• As series pass transistor in the regulated power
supply
• The audio amplifier in the stereo system
• Power control circuit
THANK
YOU!