©2002 Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation HGTG10N120BN, HGTP10N120BN, HGT1S10N120BNS Rev. B1
Handling Precautions for IGBTs
Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors are susceptible to
gate-insulation damage by the electrostatic discharge of
energy through the devices. When handling these devices,
care should be exercised to assure that the static charge
bui lt in the handler’s body capacitance is not discharged
through the device. With proper handling and application
procedures, however, IGBTs are cu rrently being extensively
used in production b y nume rous equipment m anuf acturers in
military, industrial and consumer applications, with virtually
no damage problems due to electrostatic discharge. IGBTs
can be handled safely if the following 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 conductive 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 sh ould 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 Voltage Rating - Nev er e xc eed the gate- vol tage
rating of VGEM. Exceeding the rated V GE can result in
permanent damage to the oxide layer in the gate region.
6. Gate Termination - The gates of thes e de vices are
essentially capacitors. Circuits that leave the gate open-
circuit ed or floating shoul d be a v oide d. Thes e condi tions
can resu lt i n turn-on of th e device due to v o ltage build up
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
protection is required an e xternal Zener is recommended.
Operating Frequency Information
Operating frequency infor mation for a typical device
(Figure 3) is presented as a guide for estimating device
performance for a specific application. Other typical
frequency vs collector current (ICE) plots are possible using
the inf o rmatio n shown fo r a typical unit in Fi gures 5, 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 defined 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-state time for a 50% duty factor. Other definitions
are possible. td(OFF)I and td(ON)I are defined in Figure 19.
Device turn-off delay can establish an additional frequency
limiting condition 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 + EON2). The
allowab le dissipation (PD) is defined by PD=(T
JM -T
C)/RθJC.
The sum of device switching and con duc ti on lo sses must
not exceed PD. A 50% duty factor was used ( Figure 3) and
the condu cti on lo sse s (PC) are approx imated by
PC=(V
CE xI
CE)/2.
EON2 and EOFF are defined in the switching waveforms
shown in Figure 19. EON2 is the integral of the
instantaneous power loss (ICE x VCE) during turn-on and
EOFF is the integr al of the instan tan eou s po wer loss
(ICE xV
CE) during turn-off . All tai l los se s are incl ude d in the
calculation for E OFF; i.e., the collector current eq uals zero
(ICE = 0).
HGTG10N120BN, HGTP10N1 20BN, HGT1S10N120BNS