©2001 Fairch ild Semicond uctor C orpo ration HGTG20N60C3, HGTP20N60C3, HGT1S20N60C3S Rev. B
Handling Precautions for IGBTs
Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors are susceptible to
gate- ins ul atio n dam age by the electrostatic discharge of
energy through the devices. When handling these devices,
care should be exercised to assure that the static charge
built in the handler’ s body cap ac itan ce is not disc ha rged
through the device. With proper handling and application
procedures, however, IGBTs are currently being extensively
used in production b y nume rous equipment m anuf acturers in
military, indus trial and con su mer appli cations, w ith vi rtually
no damage problems due to electrostatic discharge. IGBTs
can be handled safely if the follow in g basic precautions are
taken:
1. Prior to assem b ly int o a circ uit, al l lead s sho uld be k ept
shorted together either by the use of metal shorting
springs or by the insertion into co nductive material such
as “ECCOSORBD™ LD26” or equivalent.
2. When de vi ces are remov ed by hand from their 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 solderi ng iron s sho uld be grounded.
4. De vic es sho uld n e ver be ins erted into or r emo v ed from
circuits with power on.
5. Gate Voltage Rating - Nev er e xc eed the gate- vol tage
rat ing of VGEM. Exceedi ng the rated VGE can result in
permanent damage to the oxide layer in the ga te region.
6. Gate Termination - The gates of thes e de vices are
essentially capacitors. Circuits that leave the gate open-
circuit ed or fl oating shoul d be a v oide d. Thes e condi tions
can resu lt in turn-on of the devic e due to voltage buildup
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
Op erating frequen cy informatio n for a typical device
(Figure 3) is presented as a guide f or est imating device
performance for a specific application. Other typical
frequency vs collector current (ICE) plots are possible us in g
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 defin ed 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 -sta te tim e for a 50% duty factor. Other defi ni tion s
are possible. td(OFF)I and td(ON)I are defined in Figure 18.
Device turn-off delay can establish an addition al fr eque n cy
limitin g con diti on for an applic ation 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
allow able dissipation (PD) is defined by PD = (TJM - TC)/RθJC.
The sum of device switchi ng and conduction losses must
not exceed PD. A 50% duty factor was used (Figure 3) and
the conduction losses (PC) are approximated by
PC=(V
CE xI
CE)/2.
EON2 and EOFF are defined in the switching waveforms
shown in Figure 18. EON2 is the inte gral of the
instant aneous power loss (ICE x VCE) during turn-on and
EOFF is the integral of th e instantaneous power loss
(ICE xV
CE) during turn-off. All tail losses are inc luded in
the calc ulation for EOFF; i.e., the co llector current equals
zero (ICE = 0).
HGTG20N60C3, HGTP20N60C3, HGT1S20N60C3S