Advantages and disadvantages of IGBT
IGBT is a three-terminal power device, which had a full form of Insulated gate bipolar transistor, it is actually made of a combination of bipolar junction transistor and MOSFET device.
IGBTs are also called the high-speed switching device mainly used for fast switching applications.
Advantages of IGBT
- Simple drive circuit
- Low on-resistance
- High voltage capacity
- Fast switching speed
- Easy to drive
- Low switching losses
- Low on-stage power dissipation
- Low gate drive requirement
- High input impedance
- Voltage control device
- Smaller snubber circuit requirement
- It has superior current conduction capability
- It is easy to turn ON and OFF
- It has excellent forward and reverses blocking capabilities.
- The switching frequency is higher than BJT.
- Enchanted condition due to bipolar nature.
- IGBT has a very low on-state voltage drop due to superior on-state current density and conductivity modulation, so the cost can be reduced and a smaller chip size is possible.
- It has a low on-state power dissipation.
- Less expensive
- The driver circuit is elementary to operate.
- They are flat temperature coefficients of resistivity.
- They had a better safe operating area.
- Low switching losses.
- It has a higher power gain than both BJT and MOSFET.
- The gate drive circuit is simple and cheap.
Explanation for advantages of IGBT
Simple driver circuit
The IGBTs use a simple network as the driver circuits for all main applications, isolated gate driver circuits will be used at low voltage and medium power circuits.
High voltage capacity
The IGBT device had a higher voltage capacity, the voltage handling capability of IGBT is a feature and the voltage values are higher than 5000V.
Higher switching speed
The IGBT has a higher switching speed, this is the reason why they are been used in power-switching applications like UPS, inverters, and power supplies.
Easy to drive
It is very easy to drive IGBT devices, this is because a simple driver circuit is needed to trigger the IGBTs.
High input impedance
The IGBT has a higher input impedance, the device stability is been calculated with this value and it is been more useful for amplifier and power supply applications.
Easy to turn ON and turn OFF
It is very easy to control the switching of IGBTs, two biasing networks are been set on the IGBT.
Disadvantages of IGBT
- Latching up problem
- They can’t block high reverse voltage.
- They had a high turn-off time
- They had an asymmetric blocking capacities
- The problem of latch UPS
Explanation for disadvantages of IGBT
Latching up problem
The latching-up problem is a common condition of IGBTs, they are been happen when continuous on-state current exceeds a certain limit.
They can’t block high reverse voltage
The IGBTs don’t conduct current in the reverse direction, this is why they block high reverse voltage.
