Advanced RBSOA analysis for advanced power BJTs

Abstract Performances of some modern power BJT's in inductive turn-off are experimentally evaluated, by means of an unclamped non-destructive method. The different instabilities exhibited are classified and their influence on device performances is discussed both in clamped and unclamped applications An “Instability Map” is proposed both as a synthetic picture which eases comparison of reverse-bias performances of devices having different ratings, and as an investigation tool for linking device behaviour to its physical features. It results that RBSOA performances are not just related to lateral dimensions of the emitter, but also to metallization lay-out of the chip, which evidently influences current distribution among cells. Finally, stray elements of testing circuit which affect results of RBSOA measurements are investigated, and some suggestions are proposed in order to let measurement results become independent of testing circuit.

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