Advanced operational techniques and pn-pn-pn structures for high-power silicon carbide gate turn-off thyristors

Author

Shah, Pankaj B. ; Geil, Bruce R. ; Ervin, Matt E. ; Griffin, Timothy E. ; Bayne, Stephen B. ; Jones, Kenneth A. ; Oldham, Timothy

Author_Institution

Sensors & Electron Devices Directorate, U.S. Army Res. Lab., Adelphi, MD, USA

Volume

17

Issue

6

fYear

2002

fDate

11/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1073

Lastpage

1079

Abstract

SiC GTO thyristors may soon be the best available choice for very high-power switching. At this time, the authors have developed new operational techniques, growth requirements and pn-pn-pn type structures to address the issues of high on-state voltage, poor turn-off gain, and inability to reach predicted breakover voltages. They present these findings using experimental measurements and numerical simulations.

Keywords

numerical analysis; power semiconductor switches; semiconductor device measurement; semiconductor device models; semiconductor device testing; thyristors; SiC; SiC GTO thyristors; breakover voltages; experimental measurements; growth requirements; high-power silicon carbide gate turn-off thyristors; high-power switching; numerical simulations; on-state voltage; operational techniques; pn-pn-pn structures; turn-off gain; Anodes; Cathodes; Circuits; Current distribution; Ionization; Power semiconductor switches; Semiconductor process modeling; Silicon carbide; Thyristors; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Power Electronics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0885-8993

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TPEL.2002.805591

Filename

1158999