TRENCHSTOP™ IGBT7 - Infineon’s solution for industrial drives

The right fit for industrial drives

Around one-third of the worlds’ electricity generated is needed to driving industrial motors for cooling, heating and ventilation, process automation, or material handling. And in absolute terms, the industrial sector is likely to double its energy demand by 2040.

This development carries a big responsibility for the industrial sector to increase its energy efficiency. It is without a doubt the driving force to reducing energy costs and to addressing climate change as well as air pollution. For example, 17 million tons of CO² could be saved, if only half of all industrial drives had electric speed control. With this number in mind, it is no surprise that the international energy agency, declares energy efficiency to be the second-largest lever to reducing carbon dioxide.

Infineon has introduced the TRENCHSTOP™ IGBT7 chip generation for addressing key requirements of the industrial drives market

Features of TRENCHSTOP™ IGBT7

Overload capability

The TRENCHSTOP™ IGBT7 allows operation at a temperature of T_vjop=175°C under overload conditions. This matches the typical drive requirements where high current and thus temperature are only required short-term.

Lower on state voltage

Compared to IGBT4, TRENCHSTOP™ IGBT7 lowers on-state voltage by around 20%. This brings a significant reduction in losses to target applications, especially to industrial drives, which usually operate with moderate switching frequencies. This is a key for higher power density and lifetime.

Enhanced controllability

The TRENCHSTOP™ IGBT7 offers a high level of controllability to match the motor insulation requirements or EMI limitations, which are in place to prevent any arcing that could eventually cause damage to coil insulation. The controllability corresponds to the device’s ability to vary the dv/dt by adjusting the value of the gate resistor (R_G). Allowing for a facilitated design-in phase.

Improved diode

The EC7 emitter-controlled diode reduces the forward voltage by 100 mV relative to the previous generation EC4. This also lowers the reverse recovery losses. In addition, it improves softness, which benefits the inverter’s EMI behavior.

Benefits of TRENCHSTOP™ IGBT7

Increased power

The best-in-class EconoDUAL™ 3 module provides a 50% higher output current for the same frame size compared to the former IGBT generation. The higher power density helps to avoid paralleling of IGBT modules, leading to simplification of the inverter design and lower costs.

Framesize jump

Easy 1B and 2B are pin-to-pin compatible with the previous IGBT4 generation, allowing for a plug-and-play replacement. When exchanging the IGBT4 with the IGBT7 solution, the output current is 30% higher for the same housing and the same system cooling. The heatsink could be reduced by 40% for the same output current or the third option would be to achieve a frame size jump by using a smaller housing in combination with 11% more output power.

Low losses

The conduction losses at the given dv/dt limitation are significantly decreased. Moreover, there is a reduction in diode losses which leads to overall 15% lower power losses.

Optimized driving

C_GE and C_GC are balanced to give the IGBT7 full control over the dv/dt and to optimize the switching waveform. CGE is designed to avoid parasitic turn-on effects, zero voltage supply for turn-off is feasible (unipolar gate driver power supply).
 

Featured products