New Industry Products

IGBT Modules with Integrated Shunts Reduce System Costs

February 14, 2018 by Paul Shepard

Infineon Technologies AG takes the EconoDUAL™ 3 modules to the next level of integration: They are now available with integrated shunt resistors for current monitoring in the ac path. Implementing these devices helps inverter manufacturers to reduce cost, improve performance and simplify the inverter designs.

The EconoDUAL 3 with integrated shunts can be used in a wide variety of applications, such as general purpose motor drives, uninterruptable power supplies, and solar. It is also designed for agricultural and commercial vehicles as well as for busses.

New inverter generations aim at cost reduction and increased power density at high lifetime levels. So far, constant improvements in this regard were restricted to the electrical performance of IGBTs, diodes, and the interconnection technologies.

Integrating functionality into the IGBT module, the EconoDUAL 3 enables further cost reduction. With its integrated shunts, external current sensors are no longer needed. This saves space in the system, reduces material costs and manufacturing efforts.

In addition, the integration results in high current measurement accuracy across a wide temperature range leading to a very precise motor control.

The new EconoDUAL 3 shunt module family supports current ranges from 300A to 600A at 1200V. It features the proven IGBT4 with Infineon's trench/fieldstop technology. The modules are available with pre-applied Thermal Interface Material (TIM) for lowest thermal resistance and longest lifetime. In addition, the housing with PressFIT pins enables a fast and cost efficient assembly.

The 450A and 600A EconoDUAL 3 modules are already available. An additional variant with 300A is planned to be released in March 2018. All three current classes are supported with an evaluation board which will be launched around mid of 2018.