Sensitive optical gating of reverse-biased AlGaAs/GaAs optothyristors for pulsed power switching applications

Author

Zhao, Jian H. ; Burke, Terence ; Larson, Dana ; Weiner, Maurice ; Chin, Albert ; Ballingall, James M. ; Yu, Tan-hau

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ, USA

Volume

40

Issue

4

fYear

1993

fDate

4/1/1993 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

817

Lastpage

823

Abstract

A heterojunction-based optothyristor has been fabricated and tested with biasing field intensity up to 34 kV/cm for pulsed power applications. The reverse-biased optothyristor can even be triggered by a light-emitting diode (LED) of a few microwatts power, and more than 500 times reduction in the required LED power for triggering has been observed when compared to bulk photoconductive switches. The optothyristor, however, does not turn on under similar triggering conditions if bias polarity is changed. The sensitive optical gating of the reverse-biased optothyristor is explained. The turn-on delay time under reverse bias has been found to be inversely proportional to the square root of the LED power. The possibility of improving the switching efficiency by superimposing the laser pulse on a constant lower level background illumination has been demonstrated

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; gallium arsenide; light emitting diodes; photoelectric devices; pulsed power technology; thyristors; AlGaAs-GaAs; LED power; bias polarity; biasing field intensity; constant lower level background illumination; heterojunction-based optothyristor; laser pulse; light-emitting diode; pulsed power switching applications; reverse-biased optothyristor; semiconductors; sensitive optical gating; switching efficiency; turn-on delay time; Delay effects; Gallium arsenide; Light emitting diodes; Lighting; Optical pulses; Optical sensors; Optical switches; Photoconductivity; Photothyristors; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.202796

Filename

202796