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Andreas Kluge*, Lutz Goehler+, Henry Gueldner*, Thomas Trompa, David Mory, Karl-Heinz Segsa'
*TU Dresden
Fakultaet Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik, Elektrotechnisches Institut, Lehrstuhl Leistungselektronik, Dresden, Germany
Email: andreas.kluge@mailbox.tu-dresden.de
+HTW Dresden, Fakultaet Elektrotechnik, Professur Leistungselektronik Friedrich-List-Platz 1, 01069 Dresden, Germany
Lasertechnik Berlin GmbH, Am Studio 2c, 12489 Berlin, Germany
'Spree Hybrid & KOlmnunikationstechnik GmbH, Schkopauer Ring 24, 12681 Berlin, Germany
Abstract-This paper presents the design of IGBT-based magnitude lower than desired for pulsed power applications,
switching modules for pulsed power applications. Starting from especially for the nitrogen laser. Recently, there have been
theoretical and practical aspects for the selection of the IGBTs
some investigations into the high-speed switching behavior
the required parameters for the design of a single cell are derived.
Extended results of the characterization process for different
of IGBTs and MOSFETs ([1], [5], [6], [7]) which were
IGBTs are presented. They show that by using a special gate promising.
driving method for IGBT devices it is possible to realize the As was shown in [7], single IGBT-chips can reach the desired
required maximum values of peak current and current slope.
From the design of the single cell the conditions for a multiple cell
series connection for the target application follow. This includes
TI:..
the development of a high-speed gate drive based on a pulse
transformer. The designed cascade is used in a nitrogen gas laser
and switches a voltage of 12 kV and carries a peak current of
500 A at a maximum current slope of about 28 A ns -1.
single cell
I. INTRODUCTION
Fig. 1. Pulsed power sy stem with capacitive energy storage
A. Pulsed Power Systems
equation 1 results in the required switching power which must c. CC- Topology
be handled by the switch. To provide the TE discharge to the tube, a topology called
ELoad,req CC-topology is used. It is already known from thyratron
Ps = (1)
tp systems and has been described in detail in [7]. Although there
are high speed switches like MCT or thyratron, their switching
For example, the nitrogen gas laser requires an energy amount
speed is still too low for a nitrogen gas laser tube. The laser
of approximately 3 0 mJ delivered in a time of about 20ns
tube requires a current slope of up to 400A ns -1 . Therefore,
which results in a switching power above 1 MW.
the CC-topology sharpens the pulse provided by the switch
by a factor of 15 to 20 regarding current slope and factor 3
B. Nitrogen gas laser regarding peak current.
First, the storage capacitor G s is charged by a HV-charger.
During this time the peaking capacitor Gp is shorted by the
impedance ZSYM. The switch turns on and the laser tube
upper laser level
is ignited by an energy transfer between G s and Gp . This
E/eV THI 40ns transfer can be influenced by the switching speed. When the
laser tube ignites, the high speed transfer of energy to laser
10
tube is mainly provided by the peaking capacitance Gp . Thus,
the above mentioned gain of peak current and current slope
is observed. The switch is protected from that high current
slope due to the parasitic inductance La. A disadvantage of
the CC-topology is the greater amount of energy which has to
5
be charged into G s . This energy is only partially transferred
to the laser tube.
RCH Cs
HV-
Charger
iT
1.0 1.4 1.8
i)V' r'
Fig. 2. Energy level diagram of the N2 laser [8] ZSYM
laser-
tube
The main application for this research is the nitrogen gas
laser. Its optical output is realized by a gas filled laser tube
at low pressure. By switching of a capacitor, a transverse Fig. 3. CC- topology
electrical discharge (TE) is fired between two electrodes in
the tube and thus a laser process starts. The output is realized
by two mirrors, one at each end of the tube. The demand
II. DEV ICE SELECT ION ASPECTS FOR PULSED POWER
for the high-dynamic switching results from the energy level
APPLICAT IONS
diagram of this laser which is shown in Figure 2. Due to the
electron collision caused by the TE, the upper laser level with A. Theoretical aspects
a lifetime of about 40ns is filled. The laser transition occurs Applications as described above require fast turn-on of
between the upper and the lower laser level, emitting a photon the main power device. Due to the moderate repetition rate,
at an ultraviolet wave length of 337.1 nm. The lower laser switch-off delay and losses are of lower interest. When an
level has a lifetime of about 1 0/Js. To reach the base level, IGBT turns on, the current is determined by the n-channel
a pass through a metastable state with a lifetime of seconds MOSFET part of the device initially. Its structure is shown in
is necessary. These different lifetimes lead to the fact that Figure 4. It is clear, that the MOSFET should be turned on
the nitrogen gas laser can only be driven in a pulsed mode. as fast as possible and that it should feature a high saturation
Furthermore, the electron collisions have to be provided by the current which is a function of the doping NA of the p+ -layer,
discharge in a time which is in the order of the lifetime of the the gate-emitter voltage VCE and the aspect ratio WLMOS .
MOS
upper laser level. The switch design is the greatest challenge Since the transit time of an electron in the MOSFET channel
when developing such a laser. On the other hand, the nitrogen of a modern IGBT is far below one nanosecond, channel
gas laser has an extraordinary high laser gain. Thus, there is no formation itself is not decisive for MOSFET turn-on delay. The
need for very complex mirror systems. To increase the peak switching delay is instead due to the effective gate-to-emitter
power and to decrease the beam divergence a simple high capacitance GIN and the effective gate resistance RC e ff, which
reflective rear mirror is sufficient. is a well-known fact. In the following, both are assumed to be
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The 2014 International Power Electronics Conference
E G
lel A
10
r"
- I I
f
8 -+
6 +
I
approximately constant. The delay can be partly compensated
by an elevated driver output voltage. If, for instance, the gate 4
is charged to a voltage VGE ON and the driver output voltage
is raised from VGl to VG2 the gate charge time is reduced by:
2
)
(2)
1-- Low NA of MOSFET region
where T RGeffCIN at the cost of a higher instantaneous o 1-- High NA of MOSFET region
current
VG2 o 0. 2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
IG(O) = (3)
RGeff tI/Js
-
from the simplified charge control equation:
x//Jm
.
ZMOSFE T IMOSFET =
Qn
Ta
+ -
dQn
dt
(4)
Fig. 6. Doping profiles of the MOSFET part [10] Cn-base width wn=100 !lill)
where Ta stands for the ambipolar lifetime and Qn denotes the
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The 2014 International Power Electronics Conference
approximately constant and if no electron recombination oc equation 2, the gate charging time is then reduced by changing
curs at the p-emitter side (total recombination of the electrons the gate voltage level. Although the gates can withstand the
in the n-base), a given amount of charge is built up faster higher voltage, the exact timing of the gate pulse ensures
if the ambipolar lifetime assumes higher values. This is the that the gate oxide voltage of the IGBT does not exceed the
reason, why IGBT structures with field stop layer and high maximum permissible transient voltage of 30V.
carrier lifetime are favorable in practical applications. The usability of the both types of operation mentioned above
B. Practical aspects
IGBTs of the 1200V - and 1700V -class reach the highest peak
pulse powers among IGBTs, they are specified for peak pulse
currents of up to 6 00A. Furthermore, they are available as
single chip devices which is advantageous for a low inductive Fig. 7. Principle of Gate Boosting
assembly.
One possibility is to design a single cell for a blocking voltage
depends on the load capacitance and the required energy
of 1200V and a peak current of 4 5 0A by a single switch. An
transfer. For the nitrogen gas laser the second type is used
interesting alternative is a parallel connection of IGBTs with
because the stored energy of the application is known. A
smaller current rating. These devices do not contain an internal
typical characterization circuit for a single cell is shown in
gate resistor. Hence, it should be easier to reach high-dynamic
Figure 8. It has its origin in a CC-topology to drive the
switching in comparison to the single-chip cell and the effort
nitrogen gas laser but can be used in the same manner for
for the gate drive is reduced.
any application which requires an energy transfer from a
Infineon offers 1200V-IGBTs with a peak current of 105 A
storage capacitor to a load. The goal of characterization is
without gate resistor. A parallel connection of four such
to reach similar voltage and current slopes for a single cell
devices could carry nearly the same current as a single chip
as they would occur in the series-parallel connection for the
with a gate resistor. Table I shows the investigated IGBT
real application. To reach equivalent switching transients for a
chips. For a comparison the state of the art MCT-switch is
single device, the storage capacitor should contain an energy
investigated, too.
amount which scales down from the real application according
III. SINGLE CELL CH ARACTERIZATION AND G ATE DRIVE to equation 5.
STRATEGY EeSApp
EeSSingle = (5)
mp ns
Due to the fact that commercial datasheets do not contain
data for pulsed operation, especially the achievable switching There, ns is the number of cells in series and mp is the number
dynamics, measurements for characterization is necessary. of cells in parallel. This approach assumes equal voltage and
Two recently published types of operation are possible to current sharing of all cells which has to be ensured by the
characterize a single cell for pulsed power applications: design and gate drive of the resulting switch. The strategy
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The 2014 International Power Electronics Conference
ns 12, mp
= 1 =
For the MCT switch, which has a higher blocking voltage, o I--=t-
-\H---Y
the energies have been adapted according to equation 5 for
ns = 10. The measurement results for the different devices
from table I are shown in Figure 9. As can be seen, the
-200 - -+---+\ --+--+--1
parallel connection of the IGBTs reach a slightly higher peak
current and higher dynamics than the single 1200V IGBT at
smaller gate voltages. A maximum di/dt of about 23A ns -1 Single-MCT VG 15 Y
-t
-- =
can be observed for the parallel connection. Furthermore, the 4xIGC36Tl20T6L VG 50Y,tG 30ns
-400
-- = = _
turn-on delay is reduced for these chips due to the smaller -- IGCl42Tl20 VG = 80Y,tG = 50ns
gate resistor. Both devices could switch a higher peak current.
Taking the damping effect of the current viewing resistor RM,s -20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
into account, in the target application the maximum switching tins
performance of the IGBTs should be reached. Furthermore, the
MCT shows even a slightly better behavior than the parallel
Fig. 9. Comparison of switching currents for different IGBTs
connection of four 1200V IGBTs.
The main result from the single cell characterization is
that in the special application IGBTs, especially the parallel
connection of 1200V IGBTs can reach a switching power degrees of freedom exist and can be adapted during the design:
comparable to the MCT when using the special gate drive The switching dynamics controlled by VGE and the amount of
strategy without increasing the stored energy compared to the energy Ecs which is transferred during the switching process.
the MCT-switch. A more general way for characterization Assuming that the IGBT switches at maximum speed (e.g.
maximum VG) three different cases exist for the relationship
VCS between initial energy Ecs o and peak current:
--
Cs
The peak current will be exceeded, decrease of VGE or
Ecso necessary to stay within peak current limit.
The peak current will be reached: Design optimum
between switching speed and maximum switching power.
The peak current will not be reached, further increase of
Ecso possible.
RSYM,s
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The 2014 International Power Electronics Conference
RG,MIN
V N
IV. DESIGN OF T HE HV-C ASC ADE gate resistor to reach the critical damped condition:
To control the IGBTs a galvanically isolated Gate-Drive Figure 14 shows the measurement result of a IGBT-based
is necessary which takes the special gate drive strategy into cascade with a blocking voltage of about 12kV. In this mode
account. Due to the fact that gate voltage pulses of about 50V the laser produces an output energy which is about 20 %
to 80V with pulse lengths of about 50ns are required, the rise above a comparable MCT-based system. The first peak in the
time should be below 20ns . Although a lower gate resistor is switch current Is determines the quality of the laser output.
advantageous for higher switching dynamics, a minimum gate As planned, it reaches approximately the maximum peak pulse
resistor must be used to avoid voltage oscillations in the gate current of the four parallel devices. In comparison to the
circuit [11] . These oscillations might lead to a different turn single cell characterization in chapter III it is increased by
on behavior of the single stages and therefore asynchronous about 20 %. This is caused by the reduced damping of the
voltage sharing. The solution of the second order differential circuit (CVR not scaled) and due to the fact that for the
equation in the gate circuit with the parasitic inductance measurement only a II-stage cascade has been used. Thus,
L(J,G L and the input capacitance GIN leads to the minimum the switching energy of a single cell in the cascade is slightly
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The 2014 International Power Electronics Conference
:1 f
w A
o
151------1---
1 -+---- 600
Vs
-
Is
- h/3 - 500
I I
10
I I
10 -- 400
- 300
- 100
lO(mm)
- -100
VjV
-5 -- -200
120
o 50 100 150 200
100 tins
60
0
V. CONCLUSION
-20
Main result of our investigations is that it is possible to
use IGBTs in compact pulsed power systems like the nitrogen
-40
20 40 60 80 100 120 gas laser which is not a standard up to now. In the target
tins application it has been proved that the IGBT-based systems can
reach and beat the performance of the MCT-based switches. A
second important achievement is the expansion and the gener
Fig. 13. Transforming a 50ns pulse to 5 rl resistive load on each output
winding alization of the results for a single device reported in former
publications. Thus, a modular design process for other pulsed
power applications is possible. The relevant design steps for
increased in comparison to the single cell characterization. the HV-cascade have been presented. Measurements show that
Figure 15 compares the different switch currents for the IGBT the results from the equivalent energy approach can be verified
cascade and the MCT cascade switching a voltage of 11kV. in the cascaded switch. Further investigations have to be done
Before igniting the laser tube, the cascade based on the parallel in the IGCl42Tl20-based cascade. Additionally, the usability
connection reaches a higher current peak than the MCT. of 1700V-IGBTs in the cascades have to be investigated. They
Hence, the energy transferred into the peaking capacitance behave less dynamic in single device characterization than
is increased which leads to the higher laser output energy. the 1200V which will lead to a lower output energy of the
Furthermore, the ratio between the first and the second current laser. The advantage would be the reduced effort due to the
peak is smaller than in the other variants. This is desired due less number of required stages. Hence, a comparison of the
to a better energy balance of the system. Owing to the fact that different cascades is possible and the best option for the target
the MCT switch current is decreased by about 20 % compared application can be chosen.
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The 2014 International Power Electronics Conference
Is l A
400 -+--
300 -+--
-100 MCT
-- IGC36Tl20T6L
-200 L--L---L--L-L--
-20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
tins
RE FERENCES
2561