A method of active junction temperature control for IGBT

The junction temperature fluctuation of an Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) is the most important factor of its aging failure, and smoothing the fluctuation is an effective way to improve the life of an IGBT. The existing method of smoothing the fluctuation is not yet ready wide application, and exploring the different approaches to active junction temperature control is a hot topic. This paper presents a method of active junction temperature control that shifts the turn-off trajectory of an IGBT to adjust the IGBT turn-off loss for smoothing the junction temperature. The principle of the active junction temperature control circuit is analyzed. The performance of the method is experimentally demonstrated.