Course Instructor:
Prof. Dieter Silber (University of Bremen)
The tutorial is aimed at engineers who are engaged in power electronics and want to improve their knowledge and understanding of power devices including the developmentS expected in near future. The course starts with a general overview on required power device properties and a very basic treatment of semiconductor material and device physics. Blocking capability of the devices, unipolar and bipolar current transport and gate control will be discussed. Diodes, MOS transistors (including compensated superjunction MOS) and Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors will be treated in detail including their dynamical properties, safe operation and temperature limits. The benefits expected from wide band gap semiconductors (SiC, GaN) will be discussed (on the 2nd day).
This introductory part is also the base for the next part devoted to power device models and the increasing role of virtual prototyping in power electronics. The following chapters demonstrate basic principles of power electronic systems and the basics of intelligent IGBT/MOSFET control circuits. MOS transistor and IGBT gate drivers for various fields of application are discussed in detail. Finally a short overview of hybrid power electronic integration and the most relevant aspects (cooling, reliability and EMC problems) will be presented.