Potential of RC-IGBTs in Three Phase Three Level Converters

Inhalt:
The functionality of IGBT and free-wheeling diode is combined in one chip by the Bi-Mode Insulated Gate Transistor (BIGT) [1], [2]. The BIGT enables the use of the whole chip area in both IGBT and diode mode. Due to the larger chip area there is a thermal effect that reduces maximum junction temperature and temperature ripple compared to conventional IGBT/diode module at the same output current [3]. This leads to the possibility of an increase in the output current. This paper investigates the potential of the BIGT in the three level NPC converter and the three level ANPC converter in terms of losses, temperature ripple and output current.