new toy! huge igbt brick - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: aortiz557
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2015, 12:53:57 pm
content: If there's one thing I love it's how resilient igbt bricks are. nice for prototyping as they can generally take more of a beating without blowing up than mosfets, then i can switch over once i have the kinks worked out of my project. my last unit was a 300 amp, 1200 volt brick, but you know, you can never have enough amps. so I humbly introduce the newest addition to my collection, big bertha.she's a CM1000HA-24H. a mitsubishi model, rated at 1200 volts, 1000 amps. perfect for driving indicator LEDs. managed to snag her for $65 on ebay, which i consider a pretty good deal.Most of my peers don't spend their time salivating over semiconductors, so I thought I might share this with an audience who might appreciate it.Have your own huge transistor array or module? I'd love to see it and the story behind how you acquired it!

author: jdraughn
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2015, 01:31:06 pm
content: I got a few large NPN transistors but they are kind of useless for any current projects I have at the moment. Here is my previous post asking about how to switch them.https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/good-way-to-trigger-a-very-large-power-transistor/msg691900/#msg691900

author: aortiz557
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2015, 01:42:57 pm
content: I see a lot of those bjt bricks on ebay. I stay away from them because i find the base drive to be a pain, too much current, too much trouble. They are cheap though, I'll give them that. I like the voltage controlled igbt scheme better. maybe you could make a flyback driver with a royer circuit. probably blow itself up trying to drive the base current, but it could be fun if they're otherwise sitting idle.

author: klr5205
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2015, 02:39:44 pm
content: Nice! I have an Infineon 1600V 1200A IGBT that my company uses in VFD drives.They were scrapping a brand new one because some moron managed to puncture the plastic case.They claim that a screwdriver was dropped point-down on it, but I don't buy it. Sounds much more like somebody got pissed off and wanted to damage something.Anyway, those modules are filled with black epoxy potting inside so the screwdriver didn't damage anything near as I could tell, but we certainly couldn't use it in a product. I asked my boss if I could have it and now I'm the proud owner of one extremely pricey paperweight lol.I blinked a lamp with it once to make sure it worked, but it's pretty much doomed to live on a shelf until I build my next solid state tesla coil or some other obnoxious curiosity.

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2015, 03:25:22 pm
content: Wow could something like that be used for a SMPS or are they slower at switching? You could make a pretty powerful PSU with that.

author: JoeN
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2015, 04:42:45 pm
content: How are these things constructed? Is this one huge monolithic piece of semiconductor or a bunch of them in series, parallel, or series/parallel? If it is monolithic, how big is the die? It must be pretty massive I guess! I wonder how fast it can be switched and what the rise and fall times and waveforms look like and on resistance. I will look for a datasheet... Here it is. Still don't see them talk about how it is constructed.http://vivliothmmy.ee.auth.gr/719/3/cm1000ha24h.pdf

author: daqq
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2015, 06:29:06 pm
content: QuoteThey are certainly not monolithic devices. Seehttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/IGBT_2441.JPGfor an example. There are multiple dies in series/parralel, doin their respective task, on a ceramic platter that thermally connects them to the bottom of the device.

author: Yansi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2015, 06:37:38 pm
content: Btw what's the point of buying $65 IGBT brick, which is so useful for you at home you can use it mostly as an paperweight and for nothing more? Or are you going to build a train or a tram?

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2015, 07:21:01 pm
content: Quote from: daqq on June 30, 2015, 06:29:06 pmIRF brought their whole range of IGBT to Elektronika last year, internals exposed. I spent 15 minutes just admiring them. Pure energy, a megawatt through a "small" device.

author: daqq
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2015, 07:27:21 pm
content: QuoteThere's a whole lot of fun projects you can do at home with this kind of power - coil guns, rail guns, can crushers, Tesla coils, various high voltage, high frequency, pulse etc.

author: aortiz557
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2015, 09:13:19 pm
content: It certainly won't be a paperweight. I definitely get a lot of use out of my smaller 300 amp module. I could use it for testing discharge rates on my bank of boostcaps, I could make a nifty power supply with it, I can use it as a component for my mig welder upgrade project. I have a ton of uses where having a semiconductor that is extremely resilient to high currents would make things so much easier. This brick is definitely not just going to be a pretty ornament on a shelf, I'm going to run the hell out of it as soon as I get the chance.

author: Yansi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2015, 09:19:11 pm
content: Ok we just named what people can do with it. The question was more what you will do with it.

author: aortiz557
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2015, 09:46:25 pm
content: i might try for a tesla coil, that's the project that seems the most appealing right now.

author: Artlav
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2015, 09:51:16 pm
content: I see your huge IGBT brick and raise you a huge modulation tetrode.33000 volt, 40A anode current, 500V grid control voltage.Was used to modulate radar pulses in a some Soviet installation.It takes 300W just to run the heaters and get a nice, warm glow.Then you apply some voltage, and the brilliant blue plasma appears.You can turn off the heaters, and the plasma would stay there for some time.Clear, blue colour that is hard to get on camera.As it cools down, the plasma changes colour and becomes more dense.All in all, it's a perfect device for blinkingan LEDa neon bulb.If anyone wants a wallpaper, here is a good one in 1920x1080:http://orbides.org/img/gmi_glow_wp.jpg

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2015, 10:20:26 pm
content: Honestly, big transistors don't impress me. It takes a lot of work to run them safely, and very little time to vaporize them if you don't!They're also one of the smallest costs in a complete system. Even tubes aren't all that much cost, in their few applications, at today's prices. Just the mounting hardware, heatsinking, enclosure, all that mechanical stuff, amounts to a lot more than the active device cost or size.It may only be a $65 purchase, but it's little more than a broken, sooty and smelly bookend if you don't have everything else to go with it.Systems engineering is where boys become men.Tim

author: aortiz557
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2015, 10:38:43 pm
content: things went just fine with the 300 amp igbt this one is replacing. huge heatsink, proper mounting, thermal paste, strong gate drive, careful with stray inductance. if i'm going to break it it's going to be by walking across the carpet and absent mindedly touching the gate

author: aortiz557
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2015, 10:42:52 pm
content: @artlavmy 4x150a suddenly feels mediocre

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2015, 10:59:06 pm
content: Quote from: aortiz557 on June 30, 2015, 10:42:52 pmGK71, though again rather inferior (indeed to both in question, if you go by specs rather than size!).Tim

author: Artlav
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2015, 11:07:05 pm
content: And then their mutant kids start eating fuses...

author: aortiz557
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 01, 2015, 02:18:12 am
content: oh man, that made me laugh