Use of IGBTs in automated external defibrillators

One of the every four deaths in the advanced world takes place because of cardiac arrest. Eighty-five percent of deaths from sudden cardiac arrest occur due to ventricular fibrillation. Without synchronization of heart muscles, blood flow through the body is interrupted leading to starving oxygen from organs. The victim will almost certainly die within 10 minutes unless aid is provided. A defibrillator applies a dose of electrical energy to the heart muscles which depolarizes a critical mass of the heart muscle, terminates the arrhythmia, and allows normal heart rhythm to be re-established. It is essential that the defibrillator be located close to the victim and be easily operated to provide the life-saving response within 10 minutes. Automated external defibrillators (AED) are now widely deployed in places such as corporate and government offices, shopping centers, airplanes, airports, restaurants, hotels, sports stadiums, schools and universities with a high density of aging populations. The automated external defibrillator is designed to provide simple voice commands to prompt the administration of the live-saving electrical jolt to the victim. According to USA Today, about 450,000 people die each year in the U.S. from sudden cardiac arrest. Among these victims, the American Medical Association (AMA) estimates that more than 100,000 lives can be saved by the availability of modern AEDs enabled by IGBTs. Many companies have made IGBT particularly customized for the implantable defibrillator market.

Transformador convertidor, Análisis de los trisitores, módulos IGBT y su Mercado

El informe de transformadores convertidores, tiristores y ventas de IGBT resume las tendencias y pronósticos de la industria pasada, presente y futura que se pueden utilizar para estudiar el transformador convertidor, los ingresos de ventas de tiristores e IGBT, el transformador convertidor, el crecimiento de ventas de tiristores y IGBT, el transformador convertidor, Tiristores y IGBT Plan de demanda y suministro de ventas. Además, este documento de investigación destaca las oportunidades, los riesgos y las amenazas que también están cubiertos para el progreso del mercado de transformadores convertidores, tiristores y ventas de IGBT en profundidad. Principalmente, este informe cubre el transformador Convertidor, Tiristores y IGBT Análisis de fabricación de ventas de los principales actores de la industria en función de sus perfiles de empresa, ingresos anuales, margen de ventas, aspectos de crecimiento que serán de gran ayuda y resultarán valiosos para el transformador Convertidor ascendente , Thyristor e IGBT Sales comercializan a los jugadores para impulsar el negocio y tener una visión de negocios basada en hechos para tomar las decisiones comerciales correctas. Puntos clave del transformador convertidor, tiristor y mercado de ventas de IGBT: El informe de la industria de ventas de transformadores convertidores, tiristores e IGBT cubre básicamente los detalles relacionados con la industria de ventas de transformadores convertidores, tiristores e IGBT, como la definición del producto, el costo, la variedad de aplicaciones y las estadísticas de demanda y suministro. Un estudio agresivo y riguroso de los reproductores de transformadores convertidores, tiristores e IGBT Sales ayudará a todos los actores del mercado a analizar las tendencias recientes y las estrategias comerciales clave. Este estudio competitivo y en profundidad del transformador convertidor, tiristores y el mercado de ventas de IGBT pronosticará el crecimiento del mercado en función de las oportunidades de desarrollo, los factores de crecimiento y la viabilidad de la inversión. La planificación de estrategias comerciales segmentando el transformador convertidor, tiristores e IGBT. Los segmentos de la industria de ventas y los segmentos de mercado existentes serán sencillos y también serán útiles para los lectores del mercado de transformadores convertidores, tiristores y ventas de IGBT.

IGBT with Mass Transit

The IGBT has a major impact on the transportation sector in all over the world. It enabled the introduction of cost effective and reliable electronic ignitions systems that have improved gasoline fuel efficiency by at least 10 percent. They have also been critical elements in the improvement of mass transit systems and the deployment of electric and hybrid electric vehicles. Modern mass transit systems rely up on electric trains where the propulsion is derived from supplying AC power to motors. High speed rail, such as the European TGV and the Japanese Shinkansen bullet trains allows travel by large numbers of people while avoiding fossil fuel consumption experienced with gasoline powered automobiles and aircraft. Until the 1990s, the silicon GTO was the only available power semiconductor switching device with the power handling capability suitable for this application. In the 1990s, the ratings of IGBTs had sufficiently advanced, to exceed one Mega-Watt allowing penetration of the IGBT into this traction market. The availability of the IGBT allowed significant improvements in the motor drive technology due to elimination of snubber circuits and an increase in the operating frequency of the inverter circuit used to deliver power to the motors. Mass transit systems within cities must rely upon a busses, trams, and underground trains. Many cities have been replacing gasoline powered busses with electric busses and trams to reduce urban pollution. All of these below requirements were met by using the IGBT-based motor drive in control system for the electric transit bus: (a) wide range of speed including high operating speed; (b) large startup torque for good acceleration; (c) high efficiency; and (d) regenerative braking to increase utilization of batteries. In Europe and Japan, electric tram transit systems have been modernized by using IGBT-based motor drives. According to AEG-Westinghouse Transport Systeme, Germany, the low floor concept is becoming a standard customer prerequisite. This has been enabled by today’s IGBT modules.

Comparison between IGBT and MOSFET

Metal-Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) and Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) are the two most popular versions among various types of switch-mode power supply (SMPS) transistors are available today. It has been observed that MOSFETs are suitable for low-voltage, low-current and high switching frequencies. On the other hand, IGBTs are favorable for high-voltage, high-current and low switching frequencies. There may be an argument that on which device works better in SMPS applications, the fact is this: there’s no common norm to specify which device performs better in a particular category of circuit. It differs from application to application, and a wide range of factors, such as speed, size, and cost, all play a role to ordain the exact choice. Now we are going to enlighten on the differences between these two transistors rather than say that one is better than the other straight away. The MOSFET is a three-terminal fully-controlled switch. Gate, drain and source are its three terminals. The gate/control signal occurs between the gate and source, and its switch terminals are the drain and source. The gate itself is made of metal. A metal oxide separates it from the source and drain. This grants for reduced power draining and makes MOSFET an excellent option to use as an electronic switch or common-source amplifier. To operate satisfactorily, a positive temperature coefficient has to be sustained by MOSFETs. As a result of this, there’s little-to-no chance of thermal runaway. On-state losses are lower because the transistor’s on-state-resistance, theoretically speaking, has no limit. Also, MOSFETs can carry through fast switching applications with little turn-off losses because they can function at high frequencies. The IGBT is also a three terminal (gate, collector, and emitter) full-controlled switch. Its gate/control signal takes place between the gate and emitter, and its switch terminals are the drain and emitter. The IGBT puts the common gate-drive feature found in the MOSFET with the high-current and low-saturation-voltage capability of a bipolar transistor at the same time. It does this by utilizing an isolated gate field effect transistor for the control input, and a bipolar power transistor as a switch. Turning on and off rapidly are the specific characteristics of IGBT. Actually its pulse repetition frequency really gets into the ultrasonic extent. This identical ability is why IGBTs are frequently implemented in amplifiers to synthesize complex waveforms with pulse width modulation and low-pass filters. IGBTs are also used to yield big power pulses in fields like particle and plasma physics, and have set up a role in modern appliances like electric cars, trains, elevators, refrigerators, vacuum cleaner etc. These transistors are very similar in terms of structures. When it comes to electron current flow, a significant difference is the addition of a p-substrate layer beneath the n-substrate layer in the IGBT. In this extra layer, holes are injected into the highly-resistive n-layer, generating a carrier overflow. This increment in conductivity within the n-layer assists to lessen the total on-state voltage of the IGBT. Unfortunately, it also obstructs reverse current flow. As a result, an extra diode (often referred to as a “freewheeling” diode) gets placed parallel with the IGBT to conduct the current in an inverse direction.

IGBT in Washing Machine Agitator

Electric automatic washing machines are now common in homes for the cleaning of daily household laundry. Washing machines were developed to eliminate the drudgery of scrubbing and rubbing to remove dirt from clothes. Electric washing machines were advertised and discussed in newspapers as early as 1904. The first automatic washing machine was introduced by Bendix in 1937. Sixty percent of the 25 Million wired homes in the United States had an electric washing machine by 1940. The annual sales for washing machines have grown to more than 58 million units worldwide by 2003. Many of these units are front loaders. Early automatic washing machines utilized mechanical means for making any changes in impeller/drum speed. Since the 1970s, electronic control of motor speed has become a common feature of most washing machines. Modern automatic washing machines provide many sophisticated features to handle the safe cleaning of a wide range of fabrics with a variety of soil removal requirements. The soil removal in an automatic electric washing machine is performed by a process of agitation of the clothes. The agitator is controlled using IGBT-based motor control modules. The direction of rotation of the motor and its speed can be regulated by using the power delivered via the IGBTs. Inverter control with IGBTs reduces wash/spin noise and vibration, and enables adjustment of the amount of water and motor torque to suit the washing load.

IGBT in MRI Machines

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an important diagnostic tool commonly used in hospitals to determine the nature of injuries and status of organs in patients. Unlike CT scans, no radiation occurs when using an MRI procedure. In an MRI machine, a powerful magnetic field is used to align the magnetization of some atoms in the body, and radio frequency fields are used to systematically alter the alignment of this magnetization. The nuclei in selected atoms produce a rotating magnetic field detectable by the scanner which is used to construct an image of the scanned area of the body. MRI is especially useful in imaging the brain, muscles, heart, and cancers compared with other medical imaging techniques such as computed tomography (CT) or X-rays. It can detect aneurysms, damage to the heart or blood vessels, torn ligaments, and to find tumors. Commencing medical diagnostic equipments has revolutionized the quality of care for mankind. Non-invasive imaging of the interior of the body enables the surgeon to perform operations while minimizing damage to adjacent tissue and organs. The IGBT has been used since the early deployment of MRI scanners for the control of the gantry on which the patient is reclining as described below. In addition, hundreds of thousands of lives are being saved due to the availability of portable defibrillators which require IGBTs for delivering the controlled shock to the patient of cardiac arrest.

IGBT in Fluorescent Lamps

It is now well-known that the IGBT enabled introduction of cost effective and reliable compact fluorescent lamps. This allowed the replacement of incandescent bulbs to provide a typical power savings of 45 watts for a 60 watt bulb. Based upon this power savings, the total reduction of electricity power consumption in the U.S. and the world between 1990 and 2010 is very noticeable. The reduction of carbon dioxide emissions in pounds per year due to this reduced electricity power consumption can be computed by multiplying the data in these figures by rate of carbon dioxide emission per kWh of electricity generated by typical power plants. The Environmental Protection Agency has analyzed the carbon dioxide emission from various types of power plants. Electricity is generated mostly (51 percent) from Coal-fired power plants in the United States. Unfortunately, the carbon dioxide emission from coal-fired power plants is the highest among the power generation options. The average carbon dioxide emission per kWh generated in the U.S. is 1.350 pounds. This value will therefore be used in the computation of carbon dioxide emission reductions resulting from IGBT-enabled compact fluorescent lamps. The reduction of carbon dioxide emissions due to the availability of IGBT-based compact fluorescent lamps obtained by multiplying the energy savings per year in kWh by 1.35 pounds/kWh.

IGBT in Solar Inverters

Solar power has a large potential to provide the electricity needs of the world’s burgeoning population. However, in 2008, solar-power supplied less than 0.02% of the total energy supply in the world. In a solar or photovoltaic cell, the incident sunlight is converted into an electrical current using the photoelectric effect within semiconductor. The typical silicon P-N junction produces the current at a DC voltage of about 0.8 volts. Many such junctions must be placed in series and parallel to create a solar panel with sufficient power generation capability for use in homes or power delivery systems. Typical solar panels may produce hundreds of watts of power at a DC voltage of about 300 volts. The DC voltage produced by the solar array must be converted into a desired well regulated AC power by using an IGBT-based inverter. IGBTs deliver low conduction and switching losses resulting in high inverter efficiency. Many companies have developed IGBT products specifically targeted for the solar inverter application. Some examples of IGBT products tailored for solar inverter applications are the Microsemi ‘APTGV30H60T3G’, International Rectifier ‘IRG4PC40UDBF’, Infineon ‘EconoDual IGBT’ etc.