Drive controllers add opto-free protection

A new series of high voltage IGBT control ICs come with a sophisticated set of protection functions.

International Rectifier has released a new series of high voltage IGBT control ICs with a sophisticated set of protection functions.

In addition to these advanced functions, these devices feature high noise immunity with up to 30% fewer components in half the footprint compared with discrete optocoupler- or transformer-based solutions.

The series consists of 1200 and 600V gate driver ICs and current sense interface ICs for a variety of applications including inverterised motor drives, general-purpose inverter circuits, switch-mode power supplies and uninterruptible power supplies.

"This new suite of gate driver and sensor ICs made with IR's high voltage IC technology enables small circuits with full protection, including ground fault protection, which was once available only in high-end systems".

"The new ICs blaze a new path for low-end industrial or servo drives as well as cost-competitive appliances", said David Tam, Vice President of IR's Consumer and Industrial Group.

Power stages using IGBTs or MOSFETs must be protected from failures such as short circuits, overcurrent conditions and ground faults.

In addition to protection circuits, the fault conditions must be detected, or sensed, in order to enable the protection functions.

IR's new line of driver ICs and sensor ICs fill this requirement, while reducing component count and simplifying circuits.

There are five 1200V gate drivers made with IR's HVIC technology.

The IR22381 is an analogue, three-phase IGBT gate driver.

With a deadtime of 0.5us, the device is ten times faster than comparable optocoupler-based drivers.

Also, the IR22381 minimises temperature drift and changes in performance over time.

An integrated desaturation feature provides for all modes of overcurrent protection, including ground fault, shoot-through and short to supply rails protection.

Soft shutdown is initiated in the event of an overcurrent condition followed by the turn off of all six outputs.

A shutdown input is included to enable custom shutdown functions.

The IR22381 includes programmable deadtime, and the output drivers have separate turn-on/turn-off pins with a two-stage turn-on output to achieve the desired IGBT dv/dt switching level.

Voltage feedback provides accurate measurements, and a bootstrap power supply eliminates an auxiliary power supply.

The IR2277 and IR22771 are high speed, single-phase current sense interface ICs with synchronous sampling for motor drive applications.

The current is sensed through an external shunt resistor which converts the analogue voltage into a time interval through a precise dual ramp system.

The time interval is level-shifted and provides digital PWM output suitable for DSP and analogue-to-digital interfaces without additional logic circuits.

The maximum throughput is 40Ksample/s, suitable for up to 20kHz asymmetrical PWM modulation and maximum delay is less than 7.5us at 20kHz.

A noise immune bidirectional level-shifting circuit is used to avoid false common mode dV/dt noise up to 50V/ns.

The IR2277 provides both analogue and PWM output, whereas the IR22771 provides PWM output.

The IR2214 and IR22141 are designed to drive single half-bridge circuits in power switching applications as well as three-phase 380V AC circuits at up to 50A at 80C.

Unlike solutions using optocouplers, the IR2214 and IR22141 gate drivers deliver stability during their lifetime and include parameter matching, such as propagation delay for high- and low-side channels as well as deadtime insertion.

Their low quiescent current on the high-side enables economical and space-saving bootstrap supply topology.

Fault feedback on IGBT desaturation is included which automatically shuts down the IGBT when used in multiphase configurations.

Desaturation detection for both sides as well as an internal biasing resistor are included in the IR2214, and an active desaturation diode bias is included in the IR22141.

The IR2214 and IR22141 can be connected together via a dedicated pin to protect the drive system from phase-to-phase short circuits.

Input and output pins are 3.3V CMOS-compatible to simplify microprocessor interfacing.

Separate power and signal ground pins enable emitter shunt configurations to simplify low-side IGBT current sensing.

These devices are housed in SSOP-24 packages.

For appliance motor drives and a wide range of general-purpose inverter circuits, the 1200V HVICs are available in 600V versions.

The IR21381 is an analogue three-phase driver, similar to the IR22381.

The IR2177 and IR21771 are 600V versions of the IR2277 and IR22771.

Rounding out the set, the IR2114 and IR21141 are 600V versions of the IR2214 and IR22141.

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