Light activated auxiliary thyristors

Light activated auxiliary thyristors for optical triggering of power thyristors can be designed for high optical sensitivity and can be combined with various types of conventional power thyristors. Reasonable data combinations (optical sensitivity, turn-on properties, dv/dt-capability) can be obtained in an optimized dual stage high voltage (3 kV -4.5 kV) thyristor. Very high trigger sensitivity at high dv/dt-capability is obtained with a novel dv/dt compensated thyristor gate performed by shunting the n⁺-emitter to an adjacent compensation region.