CHAPTER 5

IGBT

5.1 Introduction
When the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) was invented by Professor Jayant Baliga in
1980, it was seen as an ideal combination of the low on-state saturation voltage of a bipolar
transistor and ease of gate drive of a MOSFET. An IGBT is a combination of BJT and MOSFET.
An IGBT has high input impedance, like MOSFET and low on-state conduction losses, like BJT.
The structure is identical to an MOSFET except the p+ substrate. However, the performance of an
IGBT is closer to that of a BJT than an MOSFET. This is due to the p+ substrate, which is
responsible for the minority carrier injection into the n-region. An IGBT is made of four alternate
PNPN layers and the three terminals are gate, collector and emitter. It is a voltage controlled
device.

5.2 Basic Structure of IGBT’s

The basic schematic of a typical N-channel IGBT based upon the DMOS process shown

Fig. 5.1 Cross Section View of IGBT’s

figure 5.1. This is one of several structures possible for this device. It is evident that the silicon
cross-section of an IGBT is almost identical to that of a vertical power MOSFET except for the p+
injecting layer. The N+ layer at the top is the source or emitter and the P+ layer at the bottom is the
drain or collector. It is also feasible to make P- channel IGBT’s and for which doping profile in
each layer will be reserved. IGBT has a parasitic thyristor comprising the four layer NPNP
structure. Some IGBT’s manufactured without the N+ buffer layer, are called non-punch through
(NPT) IGBT’s whereas those with this layer are called punch-through (PT) IGBT’s. The presence
of this buffer layer can significantly improve the performance of the device if the doping level and
thickness of this layer are chosen appropriately. Despite physical similarities, the operation of an
IGBT is closer to that of a power BJT than a power MOSFET. It is due to the P+ drain layer
(injecting layer) which is responsible for the minority carrier injection into the N- drift region and
the resulting conductivity modulation. An IGBT is turned on by just applying a positive gate
voltage to open the channel for n carriers and is turned off by removing the gate voltage to close
the channel. It requires a very simple driver circuit. It has lower switching and conducting losses
while sharing many of the appealing features of power MOSFET, such as ease of gate drive, peak
current, capability, and ruggedness. An IGBT’s is inherently faster than a BJT. However, the
switching speed of IGBT’s is inferior to that of MOSFET.

5.2.1 Equvalent Circuit of IGBT’s

Fig. 5.2 Equivalent Circuit Model of an IGBT

Based on the structure, a simple equivalent circuit model of an IGBT can be drawn as shown in
figure 5.2. It contains MOSFET, JFET, NPN and PNP transistors. The collector of the PNP is
connected to the base of the NPN and the collector of the NPN is connected to the base of the PNP
through the JFET. The NPN and PNP transistors represent the parasitic thyristor which constitutes
a regenerative feedback loop. The resistor RB represents the shorting of the base-emitter of the
NPN transistor to ensure that the thyristor does not latch up, which will lead to the IGBT latch up.
The JFET represents the constriction of current between any two neighboring IGBT cells. It
supports most of the voltage and allows the MOSFET to be a low voltage type and consequently
have a low RSD (ON) value. A circuit symbol for the IGBT is shown in figure 5.3. It has three
terminals called Collector (C), Gate (G) and Emitter (E).

Fig. 5.3 Circuit Symbols of IGBT

5.2.2 Punch Through and Non-Punch Through of IGBT’s

The IGBT’s has two structures:

• Punch-through (PT)
• Non punch-through (NPT)

In the punch through structure, the switching time is reduced by use of a heavily doped n- buffer
layer in the drift region near the collector.

In non-punch through structure, carrier lifetime is kept more than that of a punch through structure,
which causes conductivity modulation of the drift region and reduces the on-state voltage drop.

The physical constructions for both of them are shown in figure 5.4. As mentioned earlier, the PT
structure has an extra buffer layer which performs two main functions:
 • Avoids failure by punch-through action because the depletion region expansion at applied
high voltage is restricted by this layer.
• Reduces the tail current during turn-off and shortens the fall time of the IGBT because the
holes are injected by the P+ collector partially recombines in this layer.

The NPT IGBTs, which has equal forward and reverse breakdown voltage, is suitable for AC
applications. The PT IGBTs, which have less reverse breakdown voltage than the forward
breakdown voltage, are applicable for DC circuits where devices are not required to support
voltage in the reverse direction.

Fig. 5.4 Structure (a) NPT-IGBT’s (b) PT-IGBT’

5.2.2.1 Comparisons of Punch Through and Non-Punch Through of IGBT’s
Table 5.1: Difference of NPT and PT

S.I Number NPT PT

1 Switching Loss Medium Low
Long, low amplitude Short tail current
tail current. Moderate Significant increase in
increase in Eoff with Eoff
temperature with temperature
2 Conduction Loss Medium Low
Increases with Flat to slight decrease
temperature with
temperature
3 Paralleling Easy Difficult
Optional sorting Must sort on VCE(on)
Recommend share heat
4 Short-Circuit Rated yes Limited
High gain

5.3 Operation Modes

5.3.1 Forward Blocking and Conduction Mode

When a positive voltage is applied across the collector-to-emitter terminal with gate shorted to
emitter shown in figure 5.1, the device enters into forward blocking mode with junctions J1 and
J3 are forward-biased and junction J2 is reverse biased. A depletion layer extends on both-sides of
junction J2 partly into P- base and N- drift region. An IGBT in the forward-blocking state can be
transferred to the forward conducting state by removing the gate-emitter shorting and applying a
positive voltage of sufficient level to invert the Si below gate in the P base region. This forms a
conducting channel which connects the N+ emitter to the N--drift region. Through this channel,
electrons are transported from the N+ emitter to the N--drift. This flow of electrons into the N--
drift lowers the potential of the N--drift region whereby the P+ collector/ N--drift becomes forward-
biased. Under this forward-biased condition, a high density of minority carrier holes is injected
into the N-- drift from the P + collector. When the injected carrier concentration is very much larger
the background concentration, a condition defined as a plasma of holes builds up in the N-- drift
region. This plasma of holes attracts electrons from the emitter contact to maintain local charge
neutrality. In this manner, approximately equal excess concentrations of holes and electrons are
gathered in the N-- drift region. This excess electron and hole concentrations drastically enhance
the conductivity of N-- drift region. This mechanism in rise in conductivity is referred to as the
conductivity modulation of the N-- drift region.

5.3.2 Reverse Blocking Mode

When a negative voltage is applied across the collector-to-emitter terminal shown in figure 6.1,
the junction J1 becomes reverse-biased and its depletion layer extends into the N-- drift region.
The break down voltage during the reverse-blocking is determined by an open-base BJT formed
by the P+ collector/ N--drift/P-base regions. The device is prone to punch-through if the N--drift
region is very lightly-doped. The desired reverse voltage capability can be obtained by optimizing
the resistivity and thickness of the N-- drift region.

5.4 Characteristics of IGBT’s

5.4.1 Output Characteristics

The plot for forward output characteristics of an NPT-IGBT is shown in figure 5.5. It has a family
of curves, each of which corresponds to a different gate-to-emitter voltage (VGE). The collector
current (IC) is measured as a function of collector-emitter voltage (VCE) with the gate-emitter
voltage (VGE) constant.
A distinguishing feature of the characteristics is the 0.7 V offset from the origin. The entire family
of curves is translated from the origin by this voltage magnitude. It may be recalled that with a P+
collector, an extra P-N junction has been incorporated in the IGBT structure. This P-N junction
makes its function fundamentally different from the power MOSFET.
 Fig. 5.5 Output I-V characteristics of an NPT-IGBT

5.4.2 Transfer Characteristics

The transfer characteristic is defined as the variation of ICE with VGE values at different
temperatures, namely, 25ºC, 125ºC, and -40ºC. A typical transfer characteristic is shown in figure
6.6. The gradient of transfer characteristic at a given temperature is a measure of the
transconductance (gfs) of the device at that temperature.
𝜕𝐼𝑐
𝑔𝑓𝑠 = │VCE =Constant (20)
𝜕𝑉𝐶𝐸

Fig. 5.6 IGBT Transfer Characteristics

A large gfs is desirable to obtain a high current handling capability with low gate drive voltage.
The channel and gate structures dictate the gfs value. Both gfs and RDS (on resistance of IGBT) are
controlled by the channel length which is determined by the difference in diffusion depths of the
P base and N+ emitter. The point of intersection of the tangent to the transfer characteristic
determines the threshold voltage (VGE (th)) of the device.

5.4.3 Switching Characteristics

The switching characteristics of an IGBT are very much similar to that of a Power MOSFET. The
major difference from Power MOSFET is that it has a tailing collector current due to the stored
charge in the N--drift region. The tail current increases the turn-off loss and requires an increase
in the dead time between the conduction of two devices in a half-bridge circuit. The figure 5.7
shows a test circuit for switching characteristics and the figure 6.8 shows the corresponding current
and voltage turn-on and turn-off waveforms. To reduce switching losses, it is recommended to
switch off the gate with a negative voltage (-15V).

Fig. 5.7 IGBT Switching Test Circuit

Fig. 5.8 IGBT Current and Voltage Turn-On and Turn-off Waveforms
The turn-off speed of an IGBT is limited by the lifetime of the stored charge or minority carriers
in the N--drift region which is the base of the parasitic PNP transistor. The only way the stored
charge can be removed is by recombination within the IGBT. Traditional lifetime killing
techniques or an N+ buffer layer to collect the minority charges at turn-off are commonly used to
speed-up recombination time. The turn-on energy Eon is defined as the integral of IC .VCE within
the limit of 10% ICE rise to 90% VCE fall. The amount of turn on energy depends on the reverse
recovery behavior of the freewheeling diode. The turn-off energy Eoff is defined as the integral of
IC. VCE within the limit of 10% VCE rise to 90% IC fall. Eoff plays the major part of total switching
losses in IGBT.

5.5 Advantage of IGBT’s over a Power MOSFET and BJT

• It has a very low on-state voltage drop due to conductivity modulation and has superior on-
state current density. So smaller chip size is possible and the cost can be reduced.
• Low driving power and a simple drive circuit due to the input MOS gate structure. It can
be easily controlled as compared to current controlled devices (thyristor, BJT) in high
voltage and high current applications.
• Wide SOA. It has superior current conduction capability compared with the bipolar
transistor. It also has excellent forward and reverse blocking capabilities.

5.6 Drawbacks
• Switching speed is inferior to that of a Power MOSFET and superior to that of a BJT.
The collector current tailing due to the minority carrier causes the turnoff speed to be
slow.
• There is a possibility of latch-up due to the internal PNPN thyristor structure.
• For the IGBT, the drift region resistance is drastically reduced by the high concentration
of injected minority carries during on-state current conduction.

5.7 Applications of IGBT

The IGBT is suitable for many applications in power electronics, especially in Pulse Width
Modulated (PWM) servo and three-phase drives requiring high dynamic range control and low
noise. It also can be used in Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS), Switched-Mode Power
Supplies (SMPS), and other power circuits requiring high switch repetition rates. IGBT improves
dynamic performance and efficiency and reduced the level of audible noise. It is equally suitable
in resonant-mode converter circuits. Optimized IGBT is available for both low conduction loss
and low switching loss.
The current rating of a single IGBT can be to 1200V, 400A and the switching frequency can be up
to 20kHz.As the upper limits of commercially available IGBT ratings are increasing (e.g., as high
as 6500V and 2400A). IGBT’s are finding increasing applications in medium-power applications
such as dc and ac motor drivers, power supplies, solid-state relays, and contractors.

Review Question

1. “IGBT combines the facilities of MOSFET and BJT”- justify the statement.
2. Explain the characteristics for which IGBT chip size is smaller than power MOSFET and
BJT.
3. Which characteristic of MOSFET is implemented in IGBT? What are the advantages of
this characteristic?
4. “Buffer layer reduces the collector tail current which slows down the turn off of an
IGBT”- justify the statement with necessary diagram.
5. “There is a possibility of latch-up due to the internal PNPN thyristor structure in IGBT”-
justify the statement with necessary circuit diagram.