What is IGBT?

What is IGBT?

IGBT is basically a type of transistor. And there are three main types in the transistor family – BJT (Bipolar Junction Transistor), FET (Field Effect Transistor), and IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor). The IGBT is a more advanced type of transistor. As a standard construction of a transistor, it too has three terminals – gate, collector and emitter. When a voltage is applied to the gate, it opens and allows a current to flow between the collector and emitter. When the voltage is removed from the gate, it closes and blocks the flow of current between the collector and the emitter. Thus, an IGBT behaves like a switch; It closes when the gate is open and current flows and when it is closed. IGBT is a combination of BJT and FET. It has the gate function of FET and low saturation voltage/output characteristics of BJT. That is why you can see it in its name too; This is a combination of both FET (IG) and BJT (BT). It is able to handle large collector-emitter currents with a virtually zero gate current drive.

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