Coupled measurement-simulation procedure for very high power fast recovery – Soft behavior diode design and testing

Reliability requirements for very high power devices are growing for their importance in industrial drives and renewable energy; testing those devices in operating condition is more and more difficult. A coupled measurement-simulation based design procedure is presented and applied to high power PiN diodes for application with fast IGBTs or IGCTs, in which high di/dt’s can result in too high current or voltage or energy peaks during turn-off, limiting the reliability of the circuit. Appropriately tuned simulation of the semiconductor device embedded in the test circuit allows to overcome measurement capability limits and to properly design the diode itself and a specific test circuit.