Characteristics of the emitter-switched thyristor

Author

Shekar, M. S S ; Baliga, B.Jayant ; Nandakumar, M. ; Tandon, S. ; Reisman, Arnold

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC, USA

Volume

38

Issue

7

fYear

1991

fDate

7/1/1991 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1619

Lastpage

1623

Abstract

The first experimental demonstration of 600-V emitter-switched thyristors fabricated using an IGBT (insulated-gate bipolar transistor) process sequence is reported. The forward drop is less than that for the IGBT, but larger than that for a thyristor by about 0.5 V due to the thyristor current flowing via the MOSFET channel. A unique characteristic observed for these devices, not exhibited by any previous MOS-gated thyristor structures, is gate-controlled current saturation even after thyristor latch-up. Switching tests were performed up to a current density of 1000 A/cm² on single-unit cells and the measured turn-off times were about 7 μs

Keywords

equivalent circuits; semiconductor device models; switching; thyristors; 600 V; 7 mus; IGBT process sequence; MOSFET channel; emitter-switched thyristor; gate-controlled current saturation; insulated-gate bipolar transistor; switching characteristics; thyristor latch-up; turn-off times; turnoff times; Cathodes; Circuit testing; Current density; Insulated gate bipolar transistors; Latches; MOSFET circuits; Performance evaluation; Power semiconductor switches; Threshold voltage; Thyristors;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.85158

Filename

85158