©2001 Fairch ild Semicond uctor C orpo ration HGTP12N60C3D, HGT1S12N60C3DS Rev. B
Handling Precautions for IGBTs
Insulated Gate Bipolar Tran sistors are susceptible to
gate- ins ul atio n dam age by the electrostatic discharge of
energy through the devices. When handling these devices,
care should be exercised to assure that the static charge
built in the handler’ s body cap ac itan ce is not disc ha rged
through the device. With proper handling and application
procedures, however, IGBTs are currently being extensively
used in production b y nume rous equipment m anuf acturers in
military, indus trial and con su mer appli cations, w ith vi rtually
no damage problems due to electrostatic discharge. IGBTs
can be handled safely if the follow in g basic precautions are
taken:
1. Prior to assem b ly int o a circui t, all l eads s hould be k ept
shorted together either by the use of metal shorting
springs or by the insertion into co nductive material such
as “ECCOSORBD LD26” or equivalent.
2. When de vice s are remov ed by hand from thei r carriers,
the hand being u sed shoul d be grou nded b y any suitab le
means, for example, with a metallic wristband.
3. Tips of soldering irons sho uld be grounded.
4. De vices sho uld n e v er b e ins erted into or remo v e d from
circuits with power on.
5. Gate V o ltage Ra ting - Ne v er e xceed the gate-v oltage
rating of VGEM. Exceeding the ra ted VGE can result in
permanent damage to the o xide layer in the gate regio n.
6. Gate T ermination - The gates of these de vices are
essentially capacitors. Circuits that leave the gate
open-cir cuited or floati ng should be avoided. These
conditions can result in turn-on of the device due to voltage
buildup on the input capacitor due to leakage currents or
pickup.
7. Gate Protection - The se de vices do no t hav e an internal
monolithic Zener Diode from gate to emitter. If gate
prote ction is requ ire d, an external Zene r is
recommended.
Operating Frequency Information
Operating frequency inf ormation for a typical device (Figure 13)
is presente d as a gu ide for estim ating de vice performance
f or a specif ic applic ation. Oth er typica l frequency vs coll ector
current (ICE) plots are possible using the information shown
for a typical unit in Figures 4, 7, 8, 11 and 12. The operati ng
frequenc y plot (Figure 13) of a typi cal dev ice shows fMAX1 or
fMAX2 whichever is smaller at each point. The information is
based on measurements of a typical device and is bounded
by the maximum rated junction temperature.
fMAX1 is defin ed by fMAX1 = 0.05/(tD(OFF)I + tD(ON)I).
Deadti me (the de nominato r) has bee n arbit rarily held to 10%
of the on -sta te tim e for a 50% duty factor. Other defi ni tion s
are possible. tD(OFF)I and tD(ON)I are defined in Figure 21.
Device turn-off delay can establish an addition al fr eque n cy
limitin g con diti on for an applic ation other than TJM. tD(OFF)I
is important when controlling output ripple under a lightly
loaded condition.
fMAX2 is defined by fMAX2 = (PD - PC)/(EOFF + EON). The
allowab le dissipation (PD) is defined by PD=(T
JM -T
C)/RθJC.
The sum o f de vice s witc hing and c onduction losses m ust not
exc eed PD. A 50% duty f a ct or was used (Figu r e 13) and the
conduction losses (PC) are approximated by
PC=(V
CE xI
CE)/2.
EON and EOFF are defined in the switching waveforms
shown in Figure 21. EON is the integral of the instantaneous
power loss (ICE x VCE) during turn-on and EOFF is the
integral of the instanta neous powe r lo ss during turn-off. All
tail losse s are inc lud ed in the ca lc ulation for EOFF; i.e., the
collector current equals zero (ICE = 0).
HGTP12N60C3D, HGT1S12N60C3DS