[ARC5] Question for Smart People: IGBT Transistors

[Bruce Long]

I thought I would drop in here and mention I am another guy who uses IGBTs at my day job.  The four volt drop is a bit of a pain but not much of a problem with you are switching 800vdc or more.  The think to keep in mind is the 4 volt IGBT drop is largely independent of the current.

Fets have an attractively low Ron resistance but pass a couple hundred amps through them and the more or less constant 4volt drop pf IGBTs starts looking pretty good.   You can reduce FET Ron to negligibly low values by putting multiple fets in parallel but achieving good current sharing is not trivial and  the cost mounts quickly making IGBTs even with their four volt drop look better than fets with respect to cost/performance.
Silicon Carbide FETS are starting to be worth using in high power applications but as far as I can tell SiC device prices are artificially low at the moment as SiC manufactures are attempting to increase market share and thereby increase production volumes and decrease manufacturing costs.
Like everything in electronics all available components have their place somewhere otherwise why would manufactures be making and selling them.
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