JP5015711B2 - Semiconductor device driving apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a drive device for a semiconductor element, and more particularly to facilitation of mounting in a device using the drive device.

  Insulated Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) that can be switched at high speed and control large power are widely used in recent years, ranging from small-capacity inverters for home appliances to large-capacity inverters used in railways, etc. ing.

  A circuit (gate driver) for driving the IGBT operates with the emitter voltage of the IGBT as a reference potential. That is, the emitter voltage of the IGBT in the upper arm of the inverter can change from the vicinity of the ground potential (≈0 V) to the power supply potential on the high voltage side depending on the operating state of the upper and lower arms. For this reason, when the gate driver is used for the upper arm of the inverter, it is necessary to insulate it from the ground potential.

Therefore, in conventional gate drivers, signals such as drive commands are isolated using a photocoupler and the like and input to the gate driver of the upper arm, and the power is transmitted using an isolation transformer. .
JP 2006-109686 A

  However, when the conventional gate driver is mounted on the substrate, it is necessary to provide an insulating transformer for each arm, and the installation area becomes large. Therefore, the driving device is included in the entire device including the driving device. There are cases where the degree of freedom of the arrangement is low, and it is difficult to mount the device in a device that uses the drive device.

  In addition, an insulation space for mounting each circuit for insulation, such as an insulation transformer and a photocoupler, is indispensable, and the size of the gate driver is further increased to make room for this insulation. is the current situation.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor device driving device that can be easily mounted in a device using the same.

  The present invention for solving the problems of the above conventional example is a semiconductor device driving apparatus, a driving circuit for driving a semiconductor switching element, an input circuit for inputting a driving command to the driving circuit, An insulating transmission circuit that is disposed on one substrate and transmits the drive command from the input circuit to the drive circuit, and is disposed on a second substrate different from the first substrate, the drive circuit and the input circuit, And the first substrate and the second substrate are arranged with an interval wider than a predetermined interval threshold.

  Here, the first substrate and the second substrate may be arranged such that one of the first substrate and the second substrate is disposed above the other with a wider interval than a predetermined interval threshold. At this time, the insulation transmission circuit is disposed between the input circuit and at least one of the drive circuits, and the second substrate includes the insulation transmission circuit of the first substrate. It may be arranged above the existing portion with an interval wider than a predetermined interval threshold.

  Furthermore, the drive circuit and the input circuit may be arranged on a first substrate, and a rectifier circuit for removing an AC component from the power supplied from the power circuit may be further provided on the second substrate.

  A plurality of the drive circuits may be provided on the first substrate. Further, the semiconductor switching element may be an IGBT.

  By disposing the power supply circuit and the insulation transmission circuit on separate substrates, mounting in the entire apparatus using the semiconductor element driving apparatus of the present invention can be facilitated.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the semiconductor element driving apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a power transformer 1, an input circuit 2, a lower arm driving circuit 3, an upper arm driving circuit 4, and an insulated communication element. 5, first and second rectifying elements 6 a and 6 b, a lower arm filter circuit 7, and an upper arm filter circuit 8. 2 and 3, the input circuit 2, the lower arm driving circuit 3, the upper arm driving circuit 4, the insulating communication element 5, the first and second rectifying elements 6a and 6b, The lower arm filter circuit 7 and the upper arm filter circuit 8 are disposed on the first substrate 10, and the power transformer 1 is disposed on the second substrate 20.

  In the present embodiment, the first substrate 10 includes a lower arm circuit forming portion 11, an upper arm circuit forming portion 12, and the lower arm circuit forming portion 11 and an upper portion as illustrated in a plan view in FIG. And an insulating part 13 sandwiched between the arm circuit forming part 12. Here, since a potential difference of several hundred volts to several thousand volts is generated between the upper arm circuit and the lower arm circuit, both are insulated by the central insulating portion 13.

  Here, the input circuit 2, the lower arm driving circuit 3, the first rectifying element 6 a, and the lower arm filter circuit 7 are arranged in the lower arm circuit forming unit 11. Further, the upper arm drive circuit 4, the second rectifying element 6 b, and the upper arm filter circuit 8 are arranged in the upper arm circuit forming unit 12. The insulating communication element 5 is disposed in the insulating unit 13. A hole H is formed in a portion of the insulating portion 13 where the insulating communication element 5 is disposed. That is, the insulated communication element 5 is disposed so as to straddle the hole H.

  Further, the second substrate 20 is a substrate having a size substantially the same as the insulating portion 13 of the first substrate 10, and is arranged above the insulating portion 13 of the first substrate 10 with a predetermined gap. . As an example, the second substrate 20 may be disposed on the upper side of the first substrate 10 while being insulated from the first substrate 10 by a support. The power transformer 1 on the second substrate 20 includes a power connector (C), transforms the power supplied from the gate driver power source connected via the power connector, and supplies it to each part. A wiring is extended from the power transformer 1 to the rectifying elements 6a and 6b on the first substrate 10, and the input circuit 2, the lower arm driving circuit 3, and the upper arm are connected via the rectifying elements 6a and 6b. Power for driving the gate of the IGBT is supplied to the drive circuit 4 and the like.

  The input circuit 2 receives a drive command signal input from the outside. The input circuit 2 inputs drive command signals to the lower arm drive circuit 3 and the upper arm drive circuit 4, respectively. The lower arm drive circuit 3 and the upper arm drive circuit 4 are circuits for driving IGBTs and the like, and are driven by drive command signals. The insulating communication element 5 is, for example, an optical communication element such as a photocoupler or an optical fiber, a level shift circuit formed using a high-voltage semiconductor switching element, or a pulse transformer.

  FIG. 4 is a side view of the semiconductor element driving apparatus of the present embodiment. Referring to FIG. 4, the second substrate 20 on which the power transformer 1 is arranged is insulated from the first substrate 10 via a support (spacer). The substrate 20 has a two-layer structure.

  Thus, an example of this embodiment is an apparatus in which upper and lower arms are arranged on an integrated substrate (first substrate 10), and the power transformer 1 is separated from the first substrate 10. It is mounted on a substrate (second substrate 20), and this second substrate 20 is disposed above the insulating communication element 5 disposed on the first substrate 10 so as to exceed a predetermined interval threshold value. . This interval threshold may be determined experimentally as long as the signal transmitted by the insulating communication element 5 and the power supplied by the power transformer 1 are insulated from each other.

  The semiconductor device driving apparatus of the present embodiment has the above-described configuration and operates as follows. In this drive device, the input circuit 2 receives a drive command signal from the outside. The input circuit 2 sends a drive command signal (upper arm control signal) to the upper arm drive circuit 4 to the upper arm drive circuit 4 via the lower arm filter circuit 7, the insulating communication element 5, and the upper arm filter circuit 8. introduce. Based on the upper arm control signal, the upper arm drive circuit 4 drives the IGBT on the upper arm side.

  At this time, power for driving the gate driver is supplied by the power transformer 1. The AC power supplied from the power transformer 1 is converted to DC by the second rectifier 6b on the upper arm side and transmitted to the upper arm drive circuit 4 and the upper arm filter circuit 8.

  The power transformer 1 also supplies gate drive power for the IGBT on the lower arm side. The AC power supplied from the power transformer 1 is converted to DC by the first rectifier element 6a on the lower arm side and transmitted to the lower arm drive circuit 3 and the lower arm filter circuit 7.

  According to the semiconductor element driving device arranged in this way, the layout can be freely set by providing the insulating regions, which are conventionally required for the power transformer 1 and the insulating communication element 5 separately, on separate substrates. It can be easily implemented in a device that uses it. For example, if it is provided in two layers as shown here, the gate driver can be reduced in size, and the upper and lower arms can be integrated while minimizing an increase in the size of the gate driver.

  Furthermore, since the power supply wiring can be directly connected to a board different from the board on which the drive circuits of the upper and lower arms are mounted, noise leaking through the stray capacitance between the power supply wiring can be removed, and the reliability of the inverter can be improved. . In addition, since the power supply circuit that generates a large amount of heat is used as a separate substrate, it is possible to suppress the influence of heat on a drive circuit that is likely to malfunction due to heat generation. In addition, when applied to a circuit having a different power supply voltage, only the power supply board needs to be changed.

  Further, in the above description, the rectifying elements 6a and 6b are mounted on the first substrate 10, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, FIG. 5 is a plan view, FIG. 6 is a plan view showing another example of the first substrate 10, and FIG. 7 is a side view thereof. 20 may be mounted. In this case, electric power converted into direct current is supplied from the rectifying element 6a mounted on the second substrate 20 to the lower arm driving circuit 3, the lower arm filter circuit 7, and the like. In addition, power converted into direct current is supplied from the rectifying element 6b mounted on the second substrate 20 to the upper arm drive circuit 4, the upper arm filter circuit 8, and the like.

  In this case, since direct-current power is supplied to the first substrate 10, it is parasitic on the substrate via the wiring from the power transformer 1 to the rectifying elements 6 a and 6 b and the stray capacitance between the substrates. The current does not leak and the operation stability of the upper arm drive circuit 4 and the lower arm drive circuit 3 can be improved.

  In addition, since components that generate large amounts of heat, such as the power transformer 1 and the rectifying elements 6a and 6b, are provided on a separate substrate, it is possible to suppress the influence of heat on a drive circuit that is liable to malfunction due to heat generation, and to improve cooling efficiency.

  Further, a plurality of drive circuits for each UVW phase of the inverter may be integrated on the first substrate 10. In this case, FIG. 8 is an example of a plan view in this case, and FIG. 9 is an example of the layout of the first substrate 10. As illustrated in FIG. 9, in this example, lower arm circuit forming portions 11u, v, w corresponding to the respective phases, upper arm circuit forming portions 12u, v, w corresponding to the respective phases, an insulating portion 13, Is formed.

  Since the potential difference is relatively small in each phase of the lower arm, it is not always necessary to provide insulation between the lower arm circuit forming portions 11u, v, w of each phase by providing a cut or the like in the substrate.

  On the other hand, between the upper arm circuit forming portions 12u, v, w of each phase, the insulating portion 13 is formed by cutting the substrate. Moreover, the hole H is formed in the part in which the insulated communication element 5 of each phase is arrange | positioned among the insulation parts 13. FIG. That is, each insulated communication element 5 is arranged so as to straddle the hole H.

  The second substrate 20 on which the power transformer 1 is mounted is arranged so as to straddle over the insulating communication element 5, and the power supplied from the power transformer 1 is routed directly to the drive circuit of each arm. Supplied through.

  According to this example, since it is not necessary to secure an insulating region for the power transformer even if 6 arms are mounted on a single substrate, the area of the gate driver can be reduced as compared with the conventional case. Further, since the output of the power transformer can be directly connected to each drive circuit, it is possible to prevent noise from leaking through the power wiring.

  Also in this example, the rectifying elements 6a and 6b for converting the electric power to each phase and each arm into direct current may be arranged on the second substrate 20 instead of the first substrate 10.

  Further, in the above description, the device for driving the IGBT has been described as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a MOSFET or a bipolar transistor may be driven as a semiconductor circuit.

  In the present embodiment, the first substrate 10 and the second substrate 20 do not necessarily have to be arranged in two layers. The signal transmitted by the insulated communication element 5 and the power supplied by the power transformer 1 May be arranged in any manner as long as they are separated from each other by an interval threshold that is insulated from each other.

1 is a configuration block diagram illustrating an example of a semiconductor element drive device according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a schematic plan view showing the example of arrangement | positioning on the board | substrate of the drive device of the semiconductor element which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a schematic plan view showing the example of the 1st board | substrate of the drive device of the semiconductor element which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a schematic side view showing the example of arrangement | positioning on the board | substrate of the drive device of the semiconductor element which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a schematic plan view showing another example of arrangement on the substrate of the driving device of the semiconductor element according to the embodiment of the present invention. It is a schematic plan view showing another example of the 1st board | substrate of the drive device of the semiconductor element which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a schematic side view showing another example of arrangement | positioning on the board | substrate of the drive device of the semiconductor element which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a schematic plan view showing another example of arrangement on the substrate of the driving device of the semiconductor element according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 10 is a schematic plan view illustrating still another example of the first substrate of the semiconductor element drive device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

  1 power transformer, 2 input circuit, 3 lower arm drive circuit, 4 upper arm drive circuit, 5 insulation communication element, 6 rectifier, 7 lower arm filter circuit, 8 upper arm filter circuit, 10 first substrate, 11 lower arm circuit Forming part, 12 upper arm circuit forming part, 13 insulating part, 20 second substrate.

Claims (4)

A drive circuit for driving the semiconductor switching element;
An input circuit for inputting a drive command to the drive circuit;
An insulation transmission circuit disposed on the first substrate and transmitting the drive command from the input circuit to the drive circuit;
A power supply circuit disposed on a second substrate different from the first substrate and supplying power to the drive circuit and the input circuit;
Including
The insulation transmission circuit is arranged between the input circuit and the drive circuit,
The semiconductor device, wherein the power supply circuit disposed on the second substrate is disposed above a portion where the insulation transmission circuit is disposed at an interval wider than a predetermined interval threshold. Device drive device. A driving device for a semiconductor device according to claim 1,
The drive circuit and the input circuit are disposed on a first substrate,
2. The semiconductor element driving device according to claim 1, wherein the second substrate further includes a rectifier circuit for removing an AC component from the power supplied from the power circuit. A drive device for a semiconductor device according to claim 1 or 2 ,
A drive device for a semiconductor element, wherein a plurality of the drive circuits are provided on the first substrate. A driving device for a semiconductor element according to any one of claims 1 to 3 ,
The semiconductor switching device is an IGBT, wherein the semiconductor switching device is an IGBT.

Images