There are three major types of transistors available:
- bipolar transistors
- Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFETs)
- Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBTs)
The table above compares the performance and characteristics of these transistors.
Bipolar transistors are now hardly ever used for power electronics and switching applications because of the need for drive and protection circuits and slow switching speed.
Instead, MOSFETs and IGBTs are selectively used according to the required characteristics.
In the low-current region, the MOSFET exhibits a lower on-state voltage than the IGBT. However, in the high-current region, the IGBT exhibits lower on-state voltage than the MOSFET, particularly at high temperature. IGBTs are commonly used at a switching frequency lower than 20kHz, because they exhibit higher switching loss than unipolar MOSFETs.
