Improved IGBT Pulls Off Low Voltage, High Power Efficiency

摘要

The difficulty of further increasing the power conversion efficiency of silicon-based components in power electronics seems to indicate that researchers are reaching the limits of potential advances to this technology. However, a research group headed by The University of Tokyo recently challenged this view by developing a power switching device that surpassed previous performance limits, illustrating that silicon technology can still be further optimized. The researchers have developed an improved insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), which is a type of switch used in power conversion to switch high voltages of around 600 to 6500 V. Achieves Stable Switching at 5V To design IGBT, the team used a scaling approach. The scaling simulations revealed that downscaling part of an IGBT to a third of its original size could lower its operating voltage from 15V to just 5V and substantially decrease its driving power.