Semiconductor element drive device and power conversion apparatus

Abstract

A semiconductor element drive device is provided to solve a problem that because a case of a change in the temperature of the semiconductor element or a current flowing through the semiconductor element is not take into consideration, switching loss and noise cannot be reduced sufficiently. In accordance with input sensing information (temperature T, current I), a timing control unitoutputs a delay signal Q to control timing of driving a current increasing circuitso that a reduction of switching loss of an IGBTis maximized. When the IGBTis in turn-on mode or turn-off mode, the current increasing circuitoutputs a drive signal in response to the delay signal Q delayed by a given time from output of the drive instruction signal P. In this way, the current increasing circuitincreases the current that causes the gate capacitor of the IGBTto be charged/discharged in response to the delay signal Q, thereby increasing a switching speed to reduce switching loss.