If you’re an R&D engineer designing a new 30-45 kW servo drive, you’ve likely faced a classic dilemma that datasheets alone can’t solve. The conventional wisdom often pits the “all-in-one” convenience of an Intelligent Power Module (IPM) against the “à la carte” flexibility of a standard IGBT module. The common myth? That IPMs are the expensive, inflexible choice reserved only for teams without the expertise to design their own gate drive. From my 15 years in the field, I can tell you this oversimplification could be costing you more than just component price—it could be costing you valuable engineering hours and your target time-to-market.
To get to the truth, let’s move beyond marketing claims and put two perfectly matched 1200V, 100A contenders into a real-world head-to-head battle: the highly integrated Mitsubishi PM100CSD120, an IPM, versus the industry-workhorse Infineon FS100R12KE3, a standard six-pack IGBT module. This isn’t just about comparing two parts; it’s a strategic choice between two distinct design philosophies. Let’s break down which one truly comes out on top for your next servo drive project.
Meet the Contenders: Integration vs. Flexibility
Before the bell rings, let’s get acquainted with our fighters. They share the same core voltage and current ratings (1200V, 100A), making them ideal for a 40kW-class drive, but their approaches are fundamentally different.
- The Integrated Champion: Mitsubishi PM100CSD120
Think of the PM100CSD120 as a pre-engineered system in a box. It’s part of Mitsubishi’s well-regarded DIPIPM™ family. Inside this single module, you don’t just get six IGBTs and their freewheeling diodes. You also get the optimized gate driver circuits, and a suite of protection features like over-current, short-circuit, over-temperature, and under-voltage lockout. This integration promises a streamlined design process and built-in reliability. - The Flexible Challenger: Infineon FS100R12KE3
The FS100R12KE3 represents the path of maximum design freedom. Housed in the ubiquitous EconoPACK™ 3 package, this module from Infineon provides the core six-pack of IGBTs and diodes. Everything else—the gate drive design, the protection scheme, the fault logic—is entirely up to you. This allows for deep customization but places the burden of implementation squarely on the design engineer.
Round 1: Design Complexity & Time-to-Market
For the engineer under project deadlines, this round is often the most critical. With the PM100CSD120, your power stage design is drastically simplified. You’re not worrying about gate resistor values, Miller clamp implementation, or ensuring adequate creepage and clearance on a complex gate driver board. Your main tasks are connecting the DC bus, motor outputs, and low-voltage control signals. This approach can shave weeks, or even months, off a development schedule, a factor that is often completely ignored in a simple Bill of Materials (BOM) analysis.
Conversely, the FS100R12KE3 demands a much more hands-on approach. You are now responsible for the entire gate drive ecosystem. This includes selecting a suitable gate driver IC, designing a robust isolated power supply for it, and meticulously laying out the PCB to minimize the parasitic inductance that can cause catastrophic voltage overshoots. While this offers immense control, it also introduces more potential points of failure and requires significant validation and testing cycles. In my experience, a poorly optimized gate drive is one of the most common causes of IGBT failure in the field. Read more on this topic in 5 practical tips for robust IGBT gate drive design.
Verdict: For pure speed and simplicity, the IPM is the clear winner. The PM100CSD120 gets you a functional and reliable power stage much faster.
Round 2: Performance Under the Hood
Here’s where things get interesting for the performance-minded engineer. A common argument for discrete designs is the ability to fine-tune performance. Let’s see how that holds up.
Conduction and Switching Losses
Looking at the datasheets, the Infineon FS100R12KE3, using IGBT3 technology, features a typical VCE(sat) of 1.7V at 25°C. The Mitsubishi PM100CSD120, leveraging their 4th generation planar IGBTs, has a slightly higher VCE(sat) typically around 2.2V. On paper, this might suggest the Infineon module is more efficient. However, the IPM’s advantage lies in its perfectly matched gate driver. The driver inside the PM100CSD120 is optimized for the specific IGBT chips it’s paired with, ensuring clean and efficient switching with minimal ringing. With the FS100R12KE3, you can tune the external gate resistors to optimize the switching speed (dV/dt) for your exact application, potentially reducing switching losses or managing EMI, but achieving this optimal balance requires expertise.
Thermal Performance
Both modules are designed for industrial environments. The FS100R12KE3’s EconoPACK™ 3 housing is an industry standard with well-documented thermal characteristics, making heatsink design predictable. The PM100CSD120 features a flat-base insulated package designed for efficient heat transfer. A key advantage of the IPM, however, is the integrated over-temperature protection. A sensor placed close to the IGBT chips provides a direct and reliable way to trigger a fault before thermal runaway can occur—a feature you’d have to implement and calibrate yourself with the standard module.
Verdict: This is a draw, but with a crucial distinction. The FS100R12KE3 offers the potential for higher performance if you have the expertise to optimize the drive circuit. The PM100CSD120 offers guaranteed, reliable performance out-of-the-box with less risk.
Round 3: The True Cost of Ownership
This is where we bust the myth. A simple BOM comparison would show the FS100R12KE3 module as the cheaper component. But that’s only a fraction of the story. To understand the true cost, we must compare the entire system.
| Cost Factor | Mitsubishi PM100CSD120 (IPM) | Infineon FS100R12KE3 (Standard Module) |
|---|---|---|
| Main Power Component | Higher unit price | Lower unit price |
| Gate Driver & Protection Circuitry | Included in the module | Requires separate gate driver ICs, isolated power supplies, op-amps for protection, and numerous passive components |
| PCB Real Estate | Minimal. Highly compact design. | Significant. Requires a larger, more complex PCB to house the driver and protection circuits. |
| Assembly & Manufacturing | Simpler. Fewer components to source and place. | More complex. Increased component count and placement time. |
| R&D and Validation Time | Drastically reduced. | Significantly higher. Requires extensive design, layout, and testing of the gate drive. |
When you factor in the cost of the additional components, the larger PCB, the increased assembly time, and most importantly, the months of your engineering team’s salary, the financial case for the IPM becomes incredibly compelling. The initial higher cost of the module is often completely offset by the savings in development and manufacturing. This is a concept explored in-depth in our article comparing PIM vs. Discrete IGBTs.
Verdict: For total cost of ownership, the PM100CSD120 is surprisingly often the more economical choice, especially for small-to-medium volume projects where time-to-market is key.
The Final Verdict: Which Module Wins for Your Servo Drive?
As with most engineering decisions, there’s no single winner. The “best” choice depends entirely on your project’s priorities.
Choose the Mitsubishi PM100CSD120 (IPM) if:
- Time-to-market is your #1 priority.
- Your design team is lean, and you need to focus on control software and system features, not power hardware intricacies.
- PCB space is at a premium, and you need the most compact solution possible.
- You need certified, out-of-the-box protection and reliability without extensive validation cycles.
Choose the Infineon FS100R12KE3 (Standard Module) if:
- You are in a high-volume, cost-down scenario where shaving every cent off the BOM is critical, and you have the engineering resources to manage a complex design.
- Your application requires a highly customized protection scheme or a non-standard switching profile.
- You are aiming to achieve the absolute maximum performance and efficiency and have the expertise for advanced gate drive optimization.
Beyond the Main Event: Other Contenders
It’s worth noting that these two are not the only players. In the standard module category, a part like the Semikron SKM100GB123D offers comparable performance to the Infineon module and is another excellent choice. For IPMs, the concept scales across different power levels. For instance, in a lower-power servo application, a 600V IPM like the Fuji Electric 6MBP100RA060 would offer similar benefits of integration and reliability.
Your Next Move
The choice between an IPM and a standard IGBT module is far more than a technical specification shootout; it’s a strategic decision about where you want to invest your most valuable resource: engineering time. The myth of the “expensive IPM” falls apart when you analyze the total cost of ownership and the price of a delayed product launch. For many modern servo drive applications, the integrated, system-level approach of the PM100CSD120 offers a faster, more reliable, and often more cost-effective path to market.
Feeling ready to make your call? Dive deeper into the specifics by exploring the PM100CSD120 datasheet and the FS100R12KE3 datasheet, or contact our team of application engineers today to discuss the unique demands of your project. We’re here to help you choose the right component and accelerate your design.