Fuji Electric Co., Ltd.

Fuji Electric Systems Co. Ltd.

Manabu Watanabe

Shin Soyano

Akira Nakamori

Seiki Igarashi

Toshifusa Yamada

Kazunori Oyabe

Yoshinori Oda

Toru Housen

Etsuo Arai

Tamao Kajiwara

A phase adjusting circuit is provided that is capable of adjusting a delay time at a rise or fall of a driving signal for driving an inverter. A phase adjusting circuit is provided upstream of a driver circuit, and an output from a hysteresis comparator is input to the driver circuit through the phase adjusting circuit. The phase adjusting circuit delays at least either rise or fall of the signal input to the driver circuit to adjust any difference between the pulse width of the input signal input to the driver circuit and the pulse width of a signal output from a switching element of an inverter driven by the driver circuit.

Inverter driving circuit an inverter control circuit

A semiconductor apparatus, including an intelligent power module, facilitates preventing sudden stop of an inverter due to an anomaly from affecting a factory operation adversely. When an anomaly occurs in IGBTs of the inverter, one of protection circuits outputs an alarm signal via an alarm enable line. In advance to the alarm signal, when the protection circuit detects a sign of a possible anomaly from a collector current or a chip temperature of any of the IGBTs exceeding a second predetermined collector current level or a second predetermined temperature level higher than the normal collector current value or the normal chip temperature but lower than a first predetermined collector current level or a first predetermined temperature level for outputting the alarm signal, the protection circuit outputs a preliminary alarm signal via a preliminary alarm line without turning off the pertinent IGBT.

Semiconductor apparatus with alarm predicting means

An intelligent power module (IPM) is formed of an inverter having power elements, a predriver for driving the inverter, and a protect circuit, and all these components are integrated into the same package. A shunt resistor is provided at an output of the inverter so that an end-to-end voltage of the shunt resistor can be output to an external device. This configuration enables an output current from an inverter apparatus incorporating the IPM to be detected without using a current transformer that requires a large installation space. In addition, the module terminals of the IPM and the terminal blocks of the inverter apparatus are integrated together to eliminate the need for wire rods and set screws for connections which are used to connect the module terminals and the terminal blocks together.

Power conversion component with integral output current shunt and its manufacturing method

A semiconductor apparatus includes a driver, an IGBT with a current sensing semiconductor element for controlling ON and OFF of a load current by a driving voltage from the driver, a current detecting section connected to a current sensing terminal of IGBT, for converting a detected current to a total voltage drop and a divided voltage, an overcurrent limiting circuit for reducing the control voltage to a certain value when the total voltage drop exceeds an operating threshold, a protecting circuit connected to the sense terminal, a protecting circuit including an OFF-signal generator circuit for outputting an OFF-signal which commands to stop outputting the control voltage when the total voltage drop exceeds a predetermined operation start voltage, and a delay circuit for delaying the OFF-signal for a certain time period.

Semiconductor apparatus

In packaged bridge circuit modules with power switching transistors such as IGBT's, internal wiring inductance can cause switching voltage spikes and imbalance between switching transistors. Upon inclusion of suitably arranged and configured inductance elements, internal wiring inductance can produce a counter-electromotive force during switching. To this end, an internal connecting terminal may branch from an output terminal, a bridge-shaped internal connecting terminal may be connected between an emitter circuit pattern of one power transistor and a collector circuit pattern of another power transistor, or signal terminals as auxiliary emitter terminals of two power transistors may be connected to an inductance providing region in a current path of an emitter circuit pattern.

Power transistor module wiring structure

By disposing various current-sensing layers on a semiconductor element with a current-sensing function, wherein signals corresponding to the sensing currents derived from each current-sensing electrode are inputted independently into said over-current control circuit and short-circuit control circuit in a control circuit for said semiconductor element; or by constructing the current-sensing resistor in said control circuit with various resistors connected in series, wherein a single sensing current flows into this resistor to generate various detection voltages divided by the resistor, while detection voltages with different values are inputted independently into said main current turn-off command circuit and main current control circuit the value I.sub.oc of the over-current detection level for the semiconductor element with a current-sensing function and the value I.sub.sct at the short-circuit current detection level can be set independently of each other. Therefore, while increasing I.sub.oc, setting I.sub.sct within a short-circuit current withstand capacity of the semiconductor element, and extending the upper limit in the main current of said semiconductor element, it is possible to avoid element break-down due to a short-circuit current.

Growing community of inventors

Nagano, Japan

Manabu Watanabe