Review of Various Failure Modes in High-Voltage Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors During Short Circuit Operation

Insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) are widely used in various high-power applications such as consumer, industrial, renewable energy, and automotive areas owing to their easy gate driving and low switching and conduction losses. Power systems require IGBTs to withstand harsh operating conditions for system reliability. In this respect, IGBTs should have sufficient short circuit ruggedness until protection circuits activate and turn off IGBTs. This work aims to review various short circuit failure modes of IGBTs to understand failure mechanisms in more detail and thereby give better insights into the robust design of high-voltage IGBTs and their driving schemes.