Power junction gate field controlled devices

A significant growth in the power ratings of field effect devices has been reported in the last few years. This increase in the power handling capability is largely due to the improvement in breakdown voltage of these devices, which has been achieved by several important technological break-throughs in the processing of these devices. This paper reviews these developments for the case of junction gate field controlled devices. These devices can be classified into the majority carrier devices such as the power junction gate field effect transistor (which has also been called the static induction transistor and the gridistor) or the bipolar devices such as the field controlled thyristor (which has also been termed the static induction thyristor and the bipolar gridistor). In all these devices, the forward blocking capability is achieved by means of a gate region which is designed to pinch-off current flow between the other terminals. Consequently, the design and fabrication of the gate region plays a dominant role in achieving a high power handling capability in these devices. This paper describes the basic device operation of both the unipolar and the bipolar devices. It also discusses the technology for the fabrication of both surface and buried grid devices. The strong influence of device fabrication technology upon the device characteristics is emphasized.