Comparison of Trench Gate IGBT and CIGBT Devices for Increasing the Power Density From High Power Modules

Recently much research has been focused on increasing the functionality and output power density per unit area in power electronic modules without increasing board space. In high power applications, MOS-controlled devices with trench gates are the most desirable as their reduced V ce (sat) enables increased conduction current density. However, with increased drift region thickness, there is significant increase in conduction loss in trench gate-insulated gate bipolar transistor (T-IGBT) due to low plasma density from inherent p-n-p transistor action. In comparison, a well-designed MOS-controlled thyristor structure such as the trench-clustered insulated gate bipolar transistor (T-CIGBT), can provide low on-state conduction loss with gate voltage turn-on and turn-off. The comparison of 3.3 kV/800 A simulation results presented in this paper shows that the T-CIGBT is a superior candidate over TIGBT to increase the power density from existing high-voltage IGBT module footprints.