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Semiconductor History | Mitsubishi Fukuoka — 1,400 Amps Inside One IGBT Module
· 2003-3
Unreviewed contributionBy kevin · · Report an issue
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Semiconductor History | Mitsubishi Fukuoka — 1,400 Amps Inside One IGBT Module
kevin
Mar, 2003
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In March 2003, Mitsubishi Electric’s specification for the CM1400DU-24NF described an insulated IGBT module rated to switch 1,400 amperes at 1,200 volts. Two power elements shared one package, giving inverter builders a half-bridge building block instead of forcing them to assemble the high-current switches, insulation, and mechanical mounting separately.
That was the good. An insulated-gate bipolar transistor combines a voltage-controlled gate with the ability to carry large currents at high voltage, while the module’s isolated baseplate makes connection to a heat sink easier. Mitsubishi listed uninterruptible power supplies and general-purpose inverters as applications: machines whose motors or electrical loads needed controlled power rather than a simple on/off connection.
The rating did not make 1,400 amperes effortless. The same data sheet allowed a junction temperature up to 150°C and specified as much as 3.9 kilowatts of collector dissipation under its test conditions. Gate drive, short-circuit protection, cooling, bus-bar inductance, insulation, mounting pressure, and repeated thermal expansion remained system problems; a large module could move those risks into a convenient package, but it could not erase them.
The business story was equally mixed. Mitsubishi Electric had released its first-generation IGBT in 1987 and proposed its Intelligent Power Module concept in 1989, integrating drive and protection functions around the switch. Later generations replaced planar cells with trench structures, added Mitsubishi’s CSTBT architecture, and thinned wafers to reduce conduction and switching losses. Each gain demanded new process control and packaging discipline, while long-lived industrial customers still expected replacement paths for older modules.
The photographed device is the exact CM1400DU-24NF, not a generic stand-in and not the 1987 first-generation chip. Its label still reads “Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Japan”; the large screw terminals, control connectors, and metal base make visible how far a power semiconductor departs from the tiny black packages associated with logic chips.
The pin marks Mitsubishi Electric’s Power Device Works (パワーデバイス製作所) at 1-1-1 Imajuku Higashi, Fukuoka. The company identifies Fukuoka as a center for power-device development and module assembly, tying the artifact to the Japanese engineering base that turns transistor cells into usable power systems.
Sources: Mitsubishi Electric ADVANCE, Vol. 135 (2011); Mitsubishi Electric IGBT lecture series; Mitsubishi Electric Power Device Works location directory; Mitsubishi Electric CM1400DU-24NF data sheet, March 2003.
Photo: “MITSUBISHI IGBT module,” Sthdhk, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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