The economic and technical advantages power converters with IGBTs offer are the result of lower costs for gate drive circuitry, a favourable trend in price developments and the enhanced ruggedness of these semiconductor devices. Different applications can be implemented by simply adapting the gate drive circuit, though specific switching characteristics and parasitic stray inductances have to be taken into account, especially under fault conditions. The example of a safe operating area (SOA) from the view of application is calculated to illustrate this. Turn-off under short-circuit conditions in the critical time space of a gate drive circuit will become manageable by active clamping of the collector over-voltage. Parallel connections can be quatitatively described by dynamic and steady-state temperature-dependent asymmetries in the current distribution. An analysis of the electrothermal correlations between the elements creates a better calculation basis for investigating the sensitivity of parameters to different temperature coefficients of the IGBT and freewheeling diode. This is finally folowed by a presentation from the user's point of view of problems to be expected later with regard to increasing the switching capacity of IGBT modules.
Part II of this paper can be read in EPE Journal Volume 1993-4.
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