Comparison and analysis of IGBT single tubes and modules

IGBT full name Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistor (Insulate-Gate Bipolar Transistor), its production process mainly includes the growth of transistor materials, cutting, cleaning, preparation, packaging and testing and other steps, you are interested in each of these production processes can be a deep understanding. The following aspects of single-tube and module IGBT comparative analysis.

IGBT single tube and module manufacturing process

Single tube and module are experienced transistor material growth, cutting, cleaning, preparation process, the difference between the two is mainly in the sealing, IGBT single tube is the IGBT wafer chip encapsulated in an independent package, common package types include TO-220, TO-247, etc. IGBT module is a number of IGBT wafer chip, diode wafer chip, etc. encapsulated in a modular device, the internal IGBT wafer chip, IGBT wafer chip, IGBT module, IGBT module, IGBT module, IGBT module and other modular equipment. The internal IGBT wafer chips work in parallel, which is also essentially multiple IGBT single tubes in parallel.

In the production of IGBT modules, IGBT manufacturers will be the same batch of wafers in parallel to form a module. And general IGBT manufacturers ship to inverter manufacturers of single tube IGBT is generally the same batch of wafers, IGBT single tube users in the use of process will also be explicitly required to the same manufacturer with the same batch of parallel connection. Therefore, from the point of view of parallel connection, there is no difference between the two essentially. Previously, many friends mentioned that the module consistency than the consistency of a single tube, the statement is not correct.

IGBT manufacturers single tube and module shipments

Data from Infineon's official website, in 2021, single-tube sales are about 1/2 of module sales, of which the main sales of modules come from high-power tower applications, with a power of more than 200KVA. Below 200KVA, more and more users choose to use single-tube solutions. Comparison from the shipment volume, IGBT single tube shipments are much larger than the IGBT module.

Single tube from 2010 photovoltaic industry began to use on a large scale, and now in the field of UPS, charging modules, photovoltaic, OBC, electric drive, basically single-tube IGBT-based. The industry's major wind power converter manufacturers Wo Wang Electric, recently launched inverter has been used 6 IGBT single tube for parallel connection, single module power to 300Kvar.

Shenzhen, many inverter manufacturers such as Huawei, Vitec, Kewa, INVT, WoWang, etc., the general module power is less than 200KW basic use of single-tube IGBT program, high-power tower machine is generally followed by the IGBT module program.

From the point of view of shipment data in recent years, the application of IGBT single-tube will become more and more widespread.

No need to apply the current situation in the field

In the more technically competitive power electronics industry, such as photovoltaic inverters, UPS, charging modules and other fields, after 2014, many new products began to use IGBT single-tube program. In some sub-fields such as APF/SVG, non-standard custom power supply, etc., began to gradually realize the advantages of single-tube, especially in the power density, supply, single-tube has a natural advantage.

Why single-tube IGBT is favored by more and more users, I think there are mainly the following aspects, first of all, the supply problem, the new crown epidemic to many manufacturers of the biggest difficulty is that the IC can not buy the problem, the same is true of the IGBT module, due to its supply of limited manufacturers, packaging compatibility is not strong, resulting in a lot of inverter manufacturers IGBT module can not be purchased, resulting in the failure to ship. In contrast, there are dozens or even hundreds of IGBT single-tube supply manufacturers, the package is completely compatible, there is no supply problem, and the replacement does not need to change the board, which is a great convenience for the inverter manufacturers to replace.

Secondly, the single-tube IGBT capacity is getting bigger and bigger, in the past two years, the IGBT single-tube 247-plus package, basically has been done more than 650V/100A, using the staggered 3 * 3 parallel program, the power can basically reach 300A, so for a single module is less than 300A power section of the inverter, the use of a single-tube program is very easy to achieve.

The third point I think is that the single-tube IGBT small size, conducive to the product system program and structural design, topology selection flexibility, different characteristics of the IGBT with a convenient, can help improve efficiency and power density. Huawei's latest generation of modular UPS, for example, the height of 3U, the power has been achieved to 125KW, can be overloaded by 150% for 1 minute, all using a single-tube IGBT or MOS program!

Reliability Comparison

Inverter reliability does not depend on whether the IGBT adopts a single-tube or a module program, and there is no essential difference between the two in terms of parallel equalization of current and protection.

From the perspective of parallel equalization, protection, etc., there is no essential difference between the two, the reliability of the inverter is more dependent on the designer's design ability, experience, etc. Tesla electric car design at the beginning of the electric drive using SIC mos multi-tube parallel program, its products are the most reliable products in the field of electric vehicles.

Therefore, it is not objective to compare the reliability of inverters by simply using modules and single tubes.

Conclusion:

The author believes that the inverter design selection using module or single tube depends mainly on the power band, greater than 200K or more inverters, if the technology accumulation is insufficient, it is recommended to use module IGBT program. Less than 200K power inverter, it is recommended to use single-tube IGBT program, no matter from the power density, product performance and other aspects have more advantages.