[attachment=6231]
Active Gate Control for Current Balancing of
Parallel-Connected IGBT Modules
in Solid-State Modulators

Dominik Bortis, Student Member, IEEE, Juergen Biela, Member, IEEE, and Johann W. Kolar, Senior Member, IEEE

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Abstract—

In modern pulsed power systems, often, fast solidstate
switches likeMOSFETs and insulated gate bipolar transistor
(IGBT) modules are used to generate short high power pulses. In
order to increase the pulsed power, solid-state switches have to be
connected in series or in parallel. Depending on the interconnection
of the switches, parameter variations in the switches and in the
system can lead to an unbalanced voltage or current. Therefore,
the switches are generally derated, which results in an increased
number of required devices, cost, and volume.With an active gate
control, derating and preselection of the switching devices can be
avoided. In this paper, an active gate control of paralleled IGBT
modules, which has been developed for converters with inductive
load, is explained in detail and adapted to a solid-state modulator.
This paper focuses on achieving a low-inductance IGBT current
measurement, the control unit implementation with a fieldprogrammable
gate array and a digital signal processor, as well as
the balancing of the pulse currents.