High-speed, high-current P-N-P and N-P-N drift transistors

The techniques involved in high-speed drift transistors have been extended to provide p-n-p and n-p-n transistors for high-speed, high-current applications. Although the specific design objective was a device useful in core-driving applications, the resulting device will be useful in many high-current, high-voltage applications. The basic structure consists of an alloy emitter, graded base and graded collector. The specific core-driving application considered required the transistor to switch currents in the range of one-half ampere with transition times of less than 50 µsec. The collector voltage and repetition rates are such that the device must be capable of dissipating several watts.