20 kV, 2 cm2, 4H-SiC gate turn-off thyristors for advanced pulsed power applications

The need for high voltage solid-state power electronic devices for advanced power distribution and energy conversion has grown rapidly in recent years, especially for pulsed power applications that require high turn-on di/dt. However, current power converters built with silicon (Si) switches are quite bulky and inefficient, making their utilization difficult in practical energy conversion and power distribution systems. The development of high-voltage power devices based on wide bandgap semiconductor such as silicon carbide (SiC) has attracted great attention due to its superior material properties over silicon. Among the high-voltage SiC power devices, SiC gate turn-off thyristor (GTO) offers excellent current handling, very high voltage blocking, and fast turn-off capabilities. SiC GTO also exhibits lower forward voltage drop than the IGBT-based switch at high injection-level currents, resulting in lower power losses during normal operation. In this paper, we report our recently developed 2 cm², 20 kV SiC p-type gate turnoff GTO thyristor with very low differential on-resistance for advanced pulsed power applications.