IGBT is a natural evolution of vertical power MOSFET, which is suitable for high current and high voltage applications and fast terminal equipment.

Because the source-drain channel is needed to achieve a higher breakdown voltage BVDSS, the channel has a high resistivity, which leads to a high RDS(on) value of the power MOSFET. IGBT eliminates these main disadvantages of existing power MOSFET.

Although the latest generation of power MOSFET devices have greatly improved the RDS(on) characteristics, at a high level, the power conduction loss is still much higher than that of IGBT technology. Compared with standard bipolar devices, lower voltage drop, ability to convert to low VCE(sat) and IGBT structure can support higher current density and simplify the schematic diagram of IGBT driver.