CAD/CAE for Power

Electronics
Course no. 5
Snubber circuits for power
semiconductors

Content
1. Design of snubbers
2 Hard switching
2.
3. Practical considerations
4 RC snubbers
4.
bb
5. RCD snubbers
6. RCD snubbers turn-off characteristics
7. Snubbers for IGBT inverters
8. Component selection and layout
9. References

Design of snubbers
Snubbers are circuits that are placed across semiconductor devices
for protection and to improve the performance
performance. The main functions of
snubber circuits are:

Reduce/eliminate voltage
g or current spikes;
p
;
Limit the rate of rise of currents (di/dt) through device at turn on;
g ((dv/dt)) across device during
g turn-off;
Limit the rate of rise of voltages
Shape the switching characteristic of the device to keep it within the safe
operating area (SOA);
Transfer power dissipation during switching (turn-off mainly) to a resistor
or a useful load;
Reduce
R d
ttotal
t l llosses d
due tto switching;
it hi
Reduce EMI by damping voltage and current ringing;

Among many types of snubbers the most common ones are:

RC network;
RCD turn
turn-off
off snubber
snubber.

Hard switching
All power converters include a switch-diode-inductor network, and
the behavior is the same regardless the topology of the converter;
The typical switching is commonly referred to as hard switching
switching, and
it exposes the switch to high stress because the maximum voltage
and maximum current must be supported simultaneously for a period,
with
ith high
hi h switching
it hi llosses.

Practical considerations
In practical circuits the switch stress will be higher due to the
unavoidable presence of parasitic inductance (Lp) and
capacitance (Cp).
Cp: switch junction capacitance + PCB stray capacitance;
Lp: layout + lead inductance;
Lp and Cp are not easy to determine;
Therefore,
Th
f
the
th circuit
i
it layout
l
t mustt be
b carefully
f ll designed,
d i
d
minimizing Lp and Cp !

RC snubbers

An RC snubber across a switch, reduces the peak voltage at turnoff and damp the current ringing;
A simple
i l procedure
d
((nott very precise)
i ) tto d
design
i Cs and
d Rs :
1)
2)
3))
4)

Choose Cs>Cp in order to achieve a significant damping; usually

Cs=2C
2Cp
Choose RS=E0/I0;
The p
power dissipated
p
on RS can be approximated
pp
as: PRS=CsE02fs
Generally the value of Rs and Cs are experimentally optimized;

Rs must have a very low self-inductance;

Optimized RC design methods provides better results;

Example
Suppose the switch is an IRF740, fs=100kHz, I0 = 5 A and E0 = 160V.
For this device the output capacitance Coss = 180 pF and the
mounting capacitance will be 40 pF.
Therefore: Cp =220pF => Cs = 440 pF.
Standard values for Cs are 390 and 470 pF. The closest standard value is Cs =
470 pF.
Rs = E0/I0 = 32.
For fs = 100 kHz => PRS = 1.2W.
A 2 Watt carbon composition resistor would be ideal for Rs because it has very
low self inductance.

RCD snubbers
RCD snubber (turn-off snubber) has several advantages over RC
networks, as:
Limits the overvoltage and reduces the total (switch and snubber)
circuit loss;
Much
M hb
better
tt switching
it hi ttrajectory
j t
off the
th device,
d i
kkeep it wellll within
ithi SOA
SOA;

The main disadvantage of RCD snubber is the higher peak voltage

across the switch (in comparison with an optimized RC snubber)
due to the presence of the diode that bypasses Rs during Cs
charging thus reducing its damping effect
charging,
effect.

RCD snubbers turn-off characteristics

In the following analysis the effect of Lp is neglected, thus RCD design is
focused on minimizing the turn-off losses;
At turn-off the switch voltage rises slowly as the switch current falls.
Therefore the p
peak p
power will be g
greatly
y reduced.
The effect is much lower switch stress and smaller switching losses;
As Cs increases the turn-off switching loci fall well inside RBSOA;

Cs selection
A large Cs reduces the peak power on the switch during turn-off, but
increases the power dissipated on Rs.
Cs selection is a tradeoff between snubber efficacy and losses;
The nominal value of Cs is:

Csn

I 0t fi
2E0

The minimum total loss (snubber+

switch)) is achieved theoretical for
Cs=0.45Csn, where the total loss is
reduced to approximately 50%.
However, as the resistor is easier to
cool than the transistor the capacitor
is usually chosen larger
larger, to reduce
the power dissipated on transistor.
Therefore Cs=Csn

Rs selection
During switch on-state
on state the energy stored in Cs must be dissipated
dissipated,
in order that the snubber be effective at the next turn-off instant
(snubber reset).
Cs must be
b di
discharged
h
dd
down to 0
0.1E
1E0 during
d i switch
i h on-state, for
f the
h
minimum on-state time, thus:

ton min
Rs d
2.3Cs
An optimal selection of Rs will ensure that all the capacitor energy is
dissipated in the resistor, which is easier to cool that the transistor;
Rs must be sufficiently large to limit the discharge current through
transistor; The discharge current should be limited to 0.2I0, thus:

Rs t

E0
0.2 I 0

The dissipated power on Rs:

PRS

0.5 Cs E02 f s

Snubbers for IGBT inverters

M
Mostt IGBT inverters
i
t
are used
d in
i hard
h d switching
it hi applications
li ti
off up tto 20kHz.
20kH
Beyond that, switching losses in the IGBT become significant;
The overvoltage transients must be minimized
minimized, by reducing the DC
DC loop
loop
inductance, and adding snubbers.
The type
yp of snubber depends
p
largely
g y of the p
power level, switching
g frequency
q
y
and circuit layout.
The most common snubber and the simplest is a decoupling network;
The value of capacitance needed for the decoupling network:
L p I 02
Cs
V pk  Vdc 2
As Lp is difficult to determine, a rule of thumb is to use 1 H per 100A (Idc).

Component selection and layout

Before actually design a snubber, it is important to minimize the
circuit p
parasitic inductances!
The snubber components must have very low intrinsic inductance
and theyy should be placed as close as possible to the switch
terminals. The components should be arranged so that the current
loop formed by the snubber has an area as small as possible to
reduce
d
th
the iinductance.
d t
High-performance integrated snubbers are available and they are
connected
t d directly
di tl tto th
the IGBT module.
d l

Cornell Dubilier capacitors

for snubber applications:
http://www.cde.com/

Rs, Cs and Ds selection

The snubber capacitor, Cs, must withstand to high peak and rms
currents and high dV/dt. Special snubber capacitors are available;
The resistor Rs, must have a low self
self-inductance.
inductance. The normal
choice of Rs is usually carbon composition or metal film.
The diode Ds must be rated for at least the peak voltage which
appears on Cs. The current through diode has a high peak value,
while
hil th
the average iis small.
ll Th
The peak
k value
l off th
the currentt should
h ld
be the basis of diode selection. The diode reverse recovery time
should
h ld b
be trr<100ns
100 (f
(fast or ultrafast
l f
di
diodes).
d )
Generally, the snubber is optimized experimentally.

Problem

Considering a buck converter with the following characteristics:

Input voltage: E0=300V;

Load current: I0=10A;
Switching frequency: fs=20kHz;

IGBT type: IRG4BC30K

Calculate:
a)
b)
c)
d)

The snubber circuit (RCD) to minimize the total power losses

((neglecting
g
g the stray
y inductances);
)
Minimum transistor on-state time in order the snubber to work
properly;
Total power losses (IGBT+ snubber) after RCD selection;
Plot the switch characteristic iC=f(vCE)

References
1. N. Mohan, T.M. Undeland, W.P. Robbins, Power Electronics
Converters, Application and Design, John Wiley & Sons, 2003;
2. M. H. Rashid, Power Electronics. Circuits, Devices and Applications
3rd edition, Pearson Education, 2004, USA.
3. M.H. Rashid, Power Electronics Handbook 3rd edition, ButterworthHeinemann, 2010, USA.
4. R. W. Erickson, Fundamentals of Power Electronics, Springer, 2001.
5. S. M. Sharkh, M.A. Abu-Sara, Power Electronics converters for
Microgrids, Wiley, 2010, USA.
6. M.C. Brown, Practical Switching Power Supply Design, Academic
Press,, 1990,, USA.
7. H. More, Matlab for Engineers, Prentice Hall, 2008.
8. I. Serban,, Hybrid
y
Microgrids
g
with Renewable Energy
gy Sources
(Romanian version), Transilvania University Press, 2008.