# IGBT Gate Boost Drive Technology for Promoting the Overload Capacity of Traction Converter

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a gate boost drive technology for IGBTs to improve their performance during short-term overloads in high-speed railway traction systems.

## Contribution

The novel contribution is the boosting-gate-voltage-driven IGBT control technology to reduce losses and temperature rise during overload conditions.

## Key findings

- Boosting the gate voltage increases IGBT current capacity and reduces conduction voltage drop.
- The gate voltage pumping function effectively lowers IGBT losses during short-term overloads.
- Experimental and simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed drive circuit.

## Abstract

Under certain circumstances, a high-speed railway may require constant acceleration or emergency braking, in which case the inverter may experience short-term overload conditions and the current passing through the IGBT will go beyond the rated design tolerance. Under overload conditions, the IGBT loss will increase instantly, raising the power semiconductor device’s junction temperature in the process. This research examines the boosting-gate-voltage-driven IGBT control technology. It increases the gate drive voltage and the IGBT current capacity and decreases the conduction voltage drop of IGBT under short-term overload conditions, reducing the instantaneous loss and temperature rise undulation of IGBT. The working characteristics of IGBT devices are studied, and the influence of gate drive voltage on device loss and temperature rise fluctuations is analyzed. Based on the emergency acceleration and brake conditions of the actual train operation, the short-term overload characteristics of the inverter are analyzed. The optimization analysis of the boosting gate voltage under emergency conditions is carried out, and the IGBT drive circuit with gate voltage pumping function is designed. The effectiveness of the driving circuit is verified through PSpice simulation and actual switching characteristic test. According to the analysis of experimental data, it can be verified that increasing the gate voltage technology can reduce IGBT losses.