I’m building a small DIY inverter to power my workshop lights, and I chose the FP15R12W1T4 IGBT. It looks ideal (1200 V, 15 A), but I’m running into some snags and could use your help.

Here’s what’s happening:

The IGBT switches fine during no-load testing, but once I hook up actual lamps, I start to see weird voltage spikes on the collector and occasional dropouts. I’ve tried snubber RC and stacking MOVs, but spikes still appear when I switch on inductive loads. My gate drive uses 15 V with 10 Ω resistor; layout shows some long traces around the IGBT + diodes.

Does anyone here have experience using FP15R12W1T4 (or similar IGBTs) in inverter builds? Would love to hear how you dealt with:

Gate drive optimization (resistor values, bootstrap / floating gate)

Layout tips for minimizing voltage overshoots / ringing (trace length, ground layout)

Snubber / clamping strategies that reliably stabilize the IGBT under load

Thanks much!