Insulated-gate bipolar transistor

Collector
Drift region

Gate

Body region

Emitter

Equivalent circuit for IGBTs

Electronic symbol for depletion-mode IGBT

handled by the device when used as an analog audio amplier.

The IGBT combines the simple gate-drive characteristics
of MOSFETs with the high-current and low-saturationvoltage capability of bipolar transistors. The IGBT combines an isolated gate FET for the control input, and a
bipolar power transistor as a switch, in a single device.
The IGBT is used in medium- to high-power applications
like switched-mode power supplies, traction motor control and induction heating. Large IGBT modules typically
consist of many devices in parallel and can have very high
current handling capabilities in the order of hundreds of
amperes with blocking voltages of 6000 V, equating to
hundreds of kilowatts.

Gate

Emitter

P+

Parasitic
Transistor

N+

N+

P+

Epitaxial
drift region
NP+

Collector

The rst-generation IGBTs of the 1980s and early 1990s

were prone to failure through such modes as latchup (in
which the device will not turn o as long as current is
owing) and secondary breakdown (in which a localized
hotspot in the device goes into thermal runaway and burns
the device out at high currents). Second-generation devices were much improved. The current third-generation
IGBTs are even better, with speed rivaling MOSFETs,
and excellent ruggedness and tolerance of overloads.[1]

Cross section of a typical IGBT cell (illustration not to scale)

The insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) is a

three-terminal power semiconductor device primarily
used as an electronic switch which, as it was developed, came to combine high eciency and fast switching. It switches electric power in many modern appliances: variable-frequency drives (VFDs), electric cars,
trains, variable speed refrigerators, lamp ballasts, airconditioners and even stereo systems with switching ampliers. Since it is designed to turn on and o rapidly,
ampliers that use it often synthesize complex waveforms
with pulse width modulation and low-pass lters. In
switching applications modern devices feature pulse repetition rates well into the ultrasonic rangefrequencies
which are at least ten times the highest audio frequency

The extremely high pulse ratings of second- and thirdgeneration devices also make them useful for generating
large power pulses in areas including particle and plasma
physics, where they are starting to supersede older devices
such as thyratrons and triggered spark gaps.
Their high pulse ratings, and low prices on the surplus
market, also make them attractive to the high-voltage
1

2 DEVICE STRUCTURE

hobbyist for controlling large amounts of power to drive The applications for the device were initially regarded
devices such as solid-state Tesla coils and coilguns.
by the power electronics community to be severely reIGBTs are important for electric vehicles and hybrid cars. stricted by its slow switching speed and latch-up of the
parasitic thyristor structure inherent within the device.
However, it was demonstrated by Baliga and also by A.
M. Goodman et al. in 1983 that the switching speed
1 History
could be adjusted over a broad range by using electron
irradiation.[5][11] This was followed by demonstration of
operation of the device at elevated temperatures by Baliga
in 1985.[12] Successful eorts to suppress the latch-up of
the parasitic thyristor and the scaling of the voltage rating
of the devices at GE allowed the introduction of commercial devices in 1983,[13] which could be utilized for a wide
variety of applications.

Static characteristic of an IGBT

The IGBT is a semiconductor device with four alternating

layers (P-N-P-N) that are controlled by a metal-oxidesemiconductor (MOS) gate structure without regenerative action. This mode of operation was rst proposed by
Yamagami in his Japanese patent S47-21739, which was
led in 1968. This mode of operation was rst experimentally reported in the lateral four layer device (SCR)
by B. W. Scharf and J. D. Plummer in 1978.[2] This
mode of operation was also experimentally discovered
in vertical device in 1979 by B. J. Baliga.[3] The device
structure was referred to as a V-groove MOSFET device with the drain region replaced by a p-type Anode
Region in this paper and subsequently as 'the insulatedgate rectier' (IGR),[4] the insulated-gate transistor
(IGT),[5] the conductivity-modulated eld-eect transistor (COMFET)[6] and bipolar-mode MOSFET.[7]

Complete suppression of the parasitic thyristor action and

the resultant non-latch-up IGBT operation for the entire
device operation range was achieved by A. Nakagawa et
al. in 1984.[14] The non-latch-up design concept was led
for US patents.[15] To test the lack of latch-up, the prototype 1200V IGBTs were directly connected without any
loads across a 600V constant voltage source and were
switched on for 25 microseconds. The entire 600V was
dropped across the device and a large short circuit current
owed. The devices successfully withstood this severe
condition. This was the rst demonstration of so-called
short-circuit-withstanding-capability in IGBTs. Nonlatch-up IGBT operation was ensured, for the rst time,
for the entire device operation range.[16] In this sense, the
non-latch-up IGBT proposed by Hans W. Becke and Carl
F. Wheatley was realized by A. Nakagawa et al. in 1984.
Products of non-latch-up IGBTs were rst commercialized by Toshiba in 1985.
Once the non-latch-up capability was achieved in IGBTs,
it was found that IGBTs exhibited very rugged and a very
large safe operating area. It was demonstrated that the
product of the operating current density and the collector
voltage exceeded the theoretical limit of bipolar transistors, 2105 W/cm2 , and reached 5105 W/cm2 .[1][16]

The insulating material is typically made of solid polyPlummer led a patent application for IGBT mode of
mers which have issues with degradation. There are deoperation in the four layer device (SCR) in 1978. USP
velopments that use an ion gel to improve manufacturing
No.4199774 was issued in 1980 and B1 Re33209[8] was
and reduce the voltage required.[17]
reissued in 1995 for the IGBT mode operation in the four
layer device (SCR).
Hans W. Becke and Carl F. Wheatley invented a similar
device for which they led a patent application in 1980,
and which they referred to as power MOSFET with an
anode region.[9] This patent has been called the semi- 2 Device structure
nal patent of the insulated gate bipolar transistor.[10] The
patent claimed no thyristor action occurs under any device operating conditions. This substantially means that An IGBT cell is constructed similarly to a n-channel verthe device exhibits non-latch-up IGBT operation over the tical construction power MOSFET except the n+ drain is
replaced with a p+ collector layer, thus forming a vertical
entire device operation range.
Practical devices capable of operating over an extended PNP bipolar junction transistor.
current range were rst reported by Baliga et al. in This additional p+ region creates a cascade connection
1982.[4] A similar paper was also submitted by J. P. Rus- of a PNP bipolar junction transistor with the surface nsel et al. to IEEE Electron Device Letter in 1982.[6] channel MOSFET.

3
FET voltage drop can be modeled as a resistance,
with the voltage drop proportional to current. By
contrast, the IGBT has a diode-like voltage drop
(typically of the order of 2V) increasing only with
the log of the current. Additionally, MOSFET resistance is typically lower for smaller blocking voltages, so the choice between IGBTs and power MOSFETS will depend on both the blocking voltage and
current involved in a particular application.
In general, high voltage, high current and low switching
frequencies favor the IGBT while low voltage, low current and high switching frequencies are the domain of the
MOSFET.
Cross section of a typical IGBT showing internal connection of
MOSFET and Bipolar Device

4 IGBT models
3

Comparison with power MOSFETs

An IGBT features a signicantly lower forward voltage

drop compared to a conventional MOSFET in higher
blocking voltage rated devices. As the blocking voltage
rating of both MOSFET and IGBT devices increases, the
depth of the n- drift region must increase and the doping
must decrease, resulting in roughly square relationship
decrease in forward conduction versus blocking voltage
capability of the device. By injecting minority carriers
(holes) from the collector p+ region into the n- drift region during forward conduction, the resistance of the ndrift region is considerably reduced. However, this resultant reduction in on-state forward voltage comes with
several penalties:
The additional PN junction blocks reverse current
ow. This means that unlike a MOSFET, IGBTs
cannot conduct in the reverse direction. In bridge
circuits, where reverse current ow is needed, an additional diode (called a freewheeling diode) is placed
in parallel with the IGBT to conduct current in the
opposite direction. The penalty isn't overly severe
because at higher voltages, where IGBT usage dominates, discrete diodes have a signicantly higher
performance than the body diode of a MOSFET.
The reverse bias rating of the N-drift region to collector P+ diode is usually only of tens of volts, so
if the circuit application applies a reverse voltage to
the IGBT, an additional series diode must be used.
The minority carriers injected into the N-drift region take time to enter and exit or recombine at
turn-on and turn-o. This results in longer switching times, and hence higher switching loss compared
to a power MOSFET.
The on-state forward voltage drop in IGBTs behaves
very dierently from power MOSFETS. The MOS-

Rather than using a device physics-based model, SPICE

simulates IGBTs using Macromodels, a method that combines an ensemble of components like FETs and BJTs in
a Darlington conguration. An alternative physics-based
model is the Hefner model, introduced by Allen Hefner
of the NIST. It is a fairly complex model that has shown
very good results. Hefners model is described in a 1988
paper and was later extended to a thermo-electrical model
and a version using SABER.[18]

5 Usage

6 See also
Bootstrapping
FGMOS
Power electronics
Power MOSFET
Solar inverter
Variable-frequency drive
Bipolar junction transistor

7 References
[1] A.Nakagawa et al., Safe operating area for 1200-V nonlatch-up bipolar-mode MOSFETs, IEEE Trans. on Electron Devices, ED-34, pp. 351355(1987)
[2] B.W. Scharf and J.D. Plummer, 1978 IEEE International
Solid-State Circuits Conference, SESSION XVI FAM
16.6 A MOS-Controlled Triac Devices

[3] B.J. Baliga, ENHANCEMENT- AND DEPLETIONMODE VERTICAL-CHANNEL M.O.S. GATED

THYRISTORS Electronics Letters p.645(1979)
[4] B. J. Baliga, et al., The insulated gate rectier (IGR): A
new power switching device, IEEE International Electron
Devices Meeting, Abstract 10.6, pp. 264-267, 1982.
[5] B. J. Baliga, Fast-switching insulated gate transistors,
IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. EDL-4, pp. 452-454,
1983.
[6] J.P. Russel et al., The COMFETA new high conductance MOS-gated device, IEEE Electron Device Lett.,
vol. EDL-4, pp. 6365, 1983
[7] A.Nakagawa et al., High voltage bipolar-mode MOSFETs with high current capability, Ext. Abst. of SSDM,
pp. 309312(1984)

8 Further reading
Dr. Ulrich Nicolai, Dr. Tobias Reimann, Prof. Jrgen Petzoldt, Josef Lutz: Application Manual IGBT
and MOSFET Power Modules, 1. Edition, ISLE Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3-932633-24-5 PDF-Version
Wintrich, Arendt; Nicolai, Ulrich; Tursky, Werner;
Reimann, Tobias (2011). PDF-Version (PDF) (2nd
ed.). Nuremberg: Semikron. ISBN 978-3-93884366-6.

9 External links
Device physics information from the University of
Glasgow
Spice model for IGBT

[8] B1 Re33209 is attached in the pdf le of Re 33209

[9] U. S. Patent No. 4,364,073, Power MOSFET with an Anode Region, issued December 14, 1982 to Hans W. Becke
and Carl F. Wheatley
[10] C. Frank Wheatley, Jr., BSEE. Innovation Hall of Fame
at A. James Clark School of Engineering.
[11] A. M. Goodman et al., Improved COMFETs with fast
switching speed and high-current capability, IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting Technical Digest, pp.
7982,1983
[12] B. J. Baliga, Temperature behavior of insulated gate transistor characteristics, Solid State Electronics, Vol. 28,
pp. 289297, 1985.
[13] Product of the Year Award: Insulated Gate Transistor,
General Electric Company, Electronics Products, 1983.
[14] A. Nakagawa et al., Non-latch-up 1200V 75A bipolarmode MOSFET with large ASO, IEEE International
Electron Devices Meeting Technical Digest, pp.860861,1984.
[15] A.Nakagawa, H. Ohashi, Y. Yamaguchi, K. Watanabe and
T. Thukakoshi, Conductivity modulated MOSFET US
Patent No.6025622(Feb.15, 2000), No.5086323 (Feb.4,
1992) and No.4672407(Jun.9, 1987)
[16] A. Nakagawa et al., Experimental and numerical study
of non-latch-up bipolar-mode MOSFET characteristics,
IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting Technical
Digest, pp. 150153, 1985
[17] Ion Gel as a Gate Insulator in Field Eect Transistors.
[18] A. R. Hefner, Jr., et al., An experimentally veried IGBT
model implemented in the Saber circuit simulator, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol 9, No 5, pp. 532
542, 1994.

EXTERNAL LINKS

IGBT driver calculation

10
10.1

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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