IGBT assembly having saturable inductor for soft landing a diode recovery current

A packaged electronic device comprising:

• a Punch Through Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (PT IGBT) having a gate, a collector, and an emitter, wherein the PT IGBT is a first integrated circuit;
• a diode, wherein the diode is a second integrated circuit;
• a saturable inductor, wherein the saturable inductor and the diode are coupled together in series between the emitter and the collector, wherein the saturable inductor has an unsaturated inductance of at least 200 nH, and wherein the saturable inductor has a saturated inductance that is smaller than the unsaturated inductance;
• a package body portion that contains the PT IGBT, the diode and the saturable inductor;
• a first package terminal coupled to the gate;
• a second package terminal coupled to the collector;
• and
• a third package terminal coupled to the emitter.

A packaged electronic device comprising:

• a Punch Through Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (PT IGBT) having a gate, a collector, and an emitter;
• a fast recovery diode that can conduct a forward conduction current through the fast recovery diode from an anode of the fast recovery diode to a cathode of the fast recovery diode;
• and
• means for affecting a rate of change of the forward conduction current, wherein the forward conduction current flows from the emitter and through the fast recovery diode and to the collector, wherein the means affects the rate of change as a function of a magnitude of the forward conduction current, wherein the means affects the rate of change such that in a first earlier amount of time the forward conduction current is falling at a first rate, and such that in a second later amount of time the forward conduction current is falling at a second rate, wherein the first rate is steeper than the second rate, wherein the forward conduction current is greater than a predetermined current level throughout substantially the entire first amount of time, and wherein the forward conduction current is smaller than the predetermined current level throughout substantially the entire second amount of time.