Product Overview

The ABB 5SHX0845F0001​ is a member of ABB’s 5SHX IGCT (Integrated Gate-Commutated Thyristor) family, manufactured by ABB Semiconductors (Switzerland/Lenzburg) and positioned as the workhorse high-power switching device for ABB’s medium-voltage drive and converter platforms—most prominently the ACS6000, ACS5000, and PCS100 active-filter families. Where a conventional GTO thyristor needs a bulky snubber and struggles with turn-off loss, and where an IGBT at 4.5 kV would carry a heavier on-state penalty, the IGCT topology in the ABB 5SHX0845F0001​ splits the difference: it is a hard-driven thyristor that commutates fully into the gate within microseconds, allowing snubber-less operation in a series-stacked 3-level or multi-level NPC inverter leg while keeping on-state loss close to a thyristor’s.Electrically the 5SHX0845F0001​ is rated 4500 V repetitive off-state (V_DRM) with an average on-state current of 840 A at T_case 70–80 °C (dependent on clamping and cooling), housed in ABB’s standard ceramic press-pack package with a dual-sided copper-molybdenum electrode stack. The press-pack format eliminates bond wires entirely—current flows axially through the silicon and the copper headers, which is what lets the device survive the 10 kA+ short-circuit and di/dt pulses of an MV drive line-side fault without the “wire lift” failures that plague module-style IGBTs at this voltage class. Thermally, the ABB 5SHX0845F0001​ is designed for liquid-cooled cold plates (de-ionized water / glycol) typical of ACS6000 inverter cabinets, with a case-to-sink thermal resistance dominated by the clamping interface rather than a substrate.In the converter hierarchy, the ABB 5SHX0845F0001​ sits inside the inverter phase-leg cubicle, typically three or four per phase depending on whether the topology is 3-level NPC, ANPC, or cascaded H-bridge. Each IGCT pairs with a dedicated gate-unit (the 5SGF… family for 5SHX08 class) that supplies the ~±15–20 V gate pulse, the ~kA-scale gate-commutate current, and the desat/over-current protection that backs up the drive controller. For asset managers running mines, cement lines, marine propulsion, or large compressor trains on ACS6000, the 5SHX0845F0001​ is one of the highest-consequence spares in the cabinet—when an IGCT fails short, the DC-link fuse clears, but the phase-leg is down until a replacement is clamped in. That is why verified-origin, clamp-force-checked, storage-compliant ABB 5SHX0845F0001​ units dominate the spare-procurement conversation for 4.5 kV MV drive fleets.

Technical Specifications

(Exact sub-parameters—V_TM, I_TSM, R_th(j-c)—vary slightly by production lot; always cross the specific datasheet PDF for 5SHX0845F0001 from ABB Semiconductors before design-in.)

Main Features and Advantages

Snubber-less 4.5 kV switching.​ The defining trait of the ABB 5SHX0845F0001​ is the IGCT mechanism: the gate driver forces a reverse-gate current on the order of kiloamperes for a few microseconds, pulling all cathode current away from the thyristor p-base and turning the device fully off as a transistor. Because the off-state is hard (no residual thyristor regeneration), the 5SHX0845F0001​ does not need the RCD snubber network that a GTO of the same voltage class would demand. Fewer snubbers means less dumped energy per cycle, smaller heatsinks on the snubber resistors, and—crucially—no snubber-cap degradation to schedule.Press-pack, bond-wire-free reliability.​ Unlike an IGBT module where the die is soldered to a DBC substrate and bond-wired to the terminals (and where a 10 kA fault can vaporize a wire), the ABB 5SHX0845F0001​ stacks the silicon between two copper-moly headers inside a ceramic cylinder, and the whole assembly is clamped between the cold plate and the busbar/anode spreader at ~10 kN. Current flows axially; there is no bond wire to lift, no substrate solder to fatigue. This is why IGCT-based MV drives routinely outlast IGBT-based ones in high-cyclical-short-circuit environments (mine conveyors, mill drives, marine thrusters).Low on-state loss at 840 A avg.​ The 5SHX0845F0001​ typically shows V_TM ≤2.2–2.5 V at rated current—meaning ~1.8–2.1 kW conduction loss per device, which at 4500 V is competitive against a series string of 1700 V IGBTs that would need three series pieces plus balancing. Three IGCTs in a 3-level NPC leg beat six IGBTs on conduction, even if the IGBTs switch faster. For a 6–10 MW MV drive running 7000 hours/year, that delta compounds.Series-stackable, no dynamic voltage sharing hassle.​ Because the ABB 5SHX0845F0001​ turns off in <1 µs with tightly controlled tail, series strings (e.g., two 4500 V IGCTs for a 7.2 kV DC link) balance dynamically without active clamp gates—just static grading resistors on the gate-unit, which ABB bakes into the 5SGF08… companion driver. That simplifies the inverter cubicle layout compared to a GTO string that needs dv/dt snubbers per device.Gate-unit ecosystem.​ The 5SHX0845F0001​ is not a standalone component—it expects the ABB 5SGF08… gate unit (specific suffix depends on ACS6000 HW revision and whether the phase-leg uses the older 5SGF08 or the newer 5SGY…). The gate unit carries the gate-commutate energy store, the desat protection, the fiber Rx/Tx to the controller, and the clamping-force aware mounting. Procuring a ABB 5SHX0845F0001​ without confirming the gate-unit HW rev is the single most common mismatch in MV-drive spare buys.Cold-chain & storage discipline.​ Because the press-pack ceramic and the internal silicone gel are hygroscopic-sensitive, ABB specifies storage <40 °C, <80 % RH, and no sustained clamp pressure during shelf life. A 5SHX0845F0001​ that sat two years in a coastal warehouse at 60 % RH and 35 °C may pass a bench diode test but fail 48 hours into an MV drive restart with partial discharge inside the ceramic. That is why “tested before ship” for IGCTs means more than a multimeter—it means clamp-force verification, storage-date audit, and preferably a surge-test or partial-discharge screen.