“The effect of carrier lifetime profile on turn-off time and turn-off losses”

The trade-off between forward voltage drop and device turn-off time can be significantly altered by the proper location of a narrow region of lower lifetime oriented perpendicular to the current flow. The proposed structure is discussed and calculations presented to illustrate this claim. Difference in thyristor turn-off and diode turn-off in an inductive circuit and when driven by a perfect voltage source are investigated. A portion of this investigation was reported at the 1979 PESC.