Power Semiconductors and Gate Drives

This course is offered in German.

Learning objective:

Power semiconductors are key components in power electronic systems. This course provides a sound understanding of currently important power semiconductors and their practical application. In addition to their structure, students learn about important static properties and switching transients. They know how the transient behavior can be influenced by the control. Students are able to select a suitable power semiconductor and to dimension important design properties. In doing so, they can take into account robustness requirements.

Contents:

• Basics of semiconductor physics (mobility, recombination and generation, impact ionization, drift-diffusion model)
• Structure and basic operation of power semiconductors (Schottky diode, bipolar diode, thyristor, MOSFET, IGBT, RC-IGBT and GaN-HEMT)
• Sizing of a drift region with regard to dielectric strength
• Unipolar limit of MOSFETs
• pn junction in the forward direction
• High injection in bipolar components using the example of a power diode and an IGBT
• Hard switching incl. control (MOS controlled and additionally plasma controlled in the case of an IGBT)
• Recovery process during diode turn-off
• Aspects of robustness in borderline operation 
• Housing and connection technologies using the example of a power module
• Semiconductor materials: silicon and silicon carbide

Previous Knowledge:

Necessary: Power electronics I, semiconductor basics e.g. from materials science.