2. Short-circuit protection

Short-circuiting is a highly restrictive malfunction for power semiconductor components (figure 4 ), as it requires them in simultaneously withstanding high voltages and currents to have sufficient safety area and to be able to transiently dissipate very high energies. In the following example, the T ₁ and T ₅ transistors of a three-phase inverter are normally conducting, and a short circuit appears at the load. The supply voltage finds itself applied across the terminals of the two passing IGBTs through the single inductance of the switching mesh. The current will therefore increase very rapidly, with a speed imposed by the voltage U _DC and the mesh inductance....