Designing a High-Voltage IGBT Structure with TCAD

Introduction

The Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT), is a power device that combines the high-power characteristics of bipolar transistors with the fast-switching and voltage-drive characteristics of MOSFETs. It is used in a wide variety of applications, ranging from electric vehicles, industrial applications such as general-purpose inverters and switching power supplies, to consumer applications such as air conditioners and washing machines, making it a key device of the modern power electronics. From the viewpoints of lowering the loss and enhancing the efficiency of the application devices to which it is incorporated, the structure of the IGBT is being continuously improved. To illustrate the effectiveness of TCAD simulations in designing a power device structure, high-voltage structures of planar type and trench type, which are typical IGBT cell structure types, were designed using ATLAS 2D device simulator and then compared to each other.