©2001 Fairch ild Semicond uctor C orpo ration HGTP12N60C3D, HGT1S12N60C3DS Rev. B
Handling Precautions for IGBTs
Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors are susceptible to
gate- ins ul atio n dam age by the electrostatic d isc ha rge of
energy through the devices. When handling these devices,
care should be exercised to assure that the sta tic charge
built in the handler’s body capacitance is no t 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, ind u s trial and con su mer appli cations, with virtually
no damage problems due to electrostatic discharge. IGBTs
can be handled safely if the follow in g basic precautions are
taken:
1. Prior to ass emb ly int o a circ uit, al l lead s sho uld be k ept
shorted together either by the use of metal shorting
springs or by the insertion into conductive material such
as “ECCOSORBD LD26” or equivalent.
2. When devi ces are remo v ed by hand from their 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 should be grounded.
4. Devices sho uld n e v er b e ins erted into or removed from
circuits with power on.
5. Gate V o ltage Ra ting - Ne v er e xceed the gate-v oltage
rating of VGEM. Exceed ing the ra ted VGE can result in
permanent damage to the o xide layer in the gate region.
6. Gate T ermination - The gates of these de vices are
essentially capacitors. Circuits that leave th e 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 leak age 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 Zener is
recommended.
Operating Frequency Information
Operating frequency information for a typical device (Figure 13)
is presente d as a gu ide for estim at ing device 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 typic al uni t in Figures 4, 7, 8, 11 and 12. The op erating
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 definition s
are possible. tD(OFF)I and tD(ON)I are defined in Figure 21.
Device turn-off delay can esta blish a n additio n al fr eque n cy
limitin g con diti on for an application 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
exceed PD. A 50% duty factor w as us ed (Figure 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 instantaneous power loss during turn-of f. 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