A new fault current-sensing scheme for fast fault protection of the insulated gate bipolar transistor

A new fault current-sensing scheme employing the floating p-well for fast protection of the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) from the short-circuit faults is proposed and verified by employing 2D mixed mode simulation, based on the previous experimental results. The proposed floating p-well current-sensing scheme detects not the normal operating current but the fault current of the main IGBT by using the diode connected MOSFET and a resistor, when the short-circuit fault occurs. The diode-connected MOSFET eliminates the degradation of the forward voltage drop, because the floating p-well current does not flow under the normal operating condition due to the threshold voltage of the diode connected MOSFET. The proposed current sensor increases the protection speed without any additional delay time by the external blanking filter.