Experimental demonstration of the emitter switched thyristor

Author

Shekar, M.S. ; Baliga, B.J. ; Nandakumar, M. ; Tandon, S. ; Reisman, A.

Author_Institution

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

fYear

1991

fDate

22-24 Apr 1991

Firstpage

128

Lastpage

131

Abstract

The operation of 600 V forward blocking emitter switched thyristors (ESTs) has been experimentally demonstrated. The devices were fabricated using an IGBT baseline process with six masking steps. The forward I-V and turnoff characteristics have been measured and corroborated through two-dimensional numerical simulations. The output characteristics are close to a thyristor with an additional drop of about 0.5 V across the lateral MOSFET. 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. A unique feature of the EST which is not seen in any other MOS-gated thyristor devices is saturation of thyristor current even after latch up of the main thyristor. This feature is very important for applications requiring current limiting and short circuit protection

Keywords

equivalent circuits; semiconductor device models; thyristors; 600 V; 7 mus; IGBT baseline process; current limiting; current saturation; emitter switched thyristor; forward blocking; latchup; short circuit protection; turnoff characteristics; turnoff times; two-dimensional numerical simulations; Current density; Current measurement; Density measurement; Insulated gate bipolar transistors; Latches; MOSFET circuits; Numerical simulation; Performance evaluation; Testing; Thyristors;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs, 1991. ISPSD '91., Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Baltimore, MD

ISSN

1063-6854

Print_ISBN

0-7803-0009-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ISPSD.1991.146082

Filename

146082