
©2001 Fairch ild Semicond uctor C orpo ration HGTG20N60A4, HGTP20N60A4 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 harge of
energy through the devices. When handling these devices,
care should be exercised to assure that the static c harge
built in the handle r’s body cap ac itance is not discha 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 us trial and con su mer applications, w ith vi rtually
no damage problems due to electrostatic discharge. IGBTs
can be handled safely if the follo wing basic preca utions 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 co ndu ctive ma terial suc h
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 r emo v ed from
circuits with power on.
5. Gate Voltage Rating - Ne v er e xceed the g ate-vol tage
rat ing of VGEM. Exceedi ng the ra ted VGE can result in
permanent damage to the oxide la yer in the ga te regio n.
6. Gate Terminatio n - The gates of these de vi ces are
essentially capacitors. Circuits that leave the gate
open-circuited or floating should be avoided. These
conditions can result in turn-on of the device due to
v oltage buil dup on the input ca pacitor 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
protection is required an external Zener is recommended.
Operating Frequency Information
Op erating frequen cy information for a typical device
(Figure 3) is presen ted as a guide for estimati ng device
perfor mance for a specific application. Other typical
frequency vs collector current (ICE) plots are po ss ible usin g
the information shown for a typical unit in Figures 6, 7, 8, 9
and 11. The operating frequency plot (Figure 3) of a typical
device 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 defini tion s
are possible. td(OFF)I and td(ON)I are defined in Figure 21.
Device turn-off delay can establish an a dditional fr eque n cy
limitin g con diti on for an applic at ion other than TJM.
fMAX2 is defined by fMAX2 = (PD - PC)/(EOFF + EON2). The
allowable dissipation (PD) is defined by P D = (TJM - TC)/RθJC.
The sum of device s witching and conduction losses must not
exceed PD. A 50% duty factor was used (Figure 3) and the
conduction losses (PC) are appr o ximate d by
PC=(V
CE xI
CE)/2.
EON2 and EOFF are defined in the switching waveforms
shown in Figure 21. EON2 is the integral of the
instantaneous po wer loss (ICE x VCE) during turn-on and
EOFF is the integral of the instantaneous po wer loss
(ICE xV
CE) during turn-off. All tail los se s are in cl ude d in the
calculation for EOFF; i.e., the collector current equals zero
(ICE = 0).
HGTG20N60A4, HGTP20N60A4
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