A 2.5-kV static induction thyristor having new gate and shorted p-emitter structures

An SI thyristor with new gate and shorted p-emitter structures (DTT-SI thyristor) is proposed to realize a high-voltage high current high-speed device having a low forward voltage drop. Investigations using fabricated 2.5-kV 100-A DTT-SI thyristors and numerical analyses show that the DTT-SI thyristor has a good trade-off between the forward voltage drop and switching characteristics when the channel width is 8-10 µm and the maximum impurity concentration is about 1 × 10¹⁷to 4 × 10¹⁷cm^-3. The typical fabricated DTT-SI thyristor has a 2.5-kV forward blocking voltage with a 58-V reverse gate bias voltage, a 1.4-V forward voltage drop with a 100-A anode current, a 2- µs turn-on time, adi/dtcapability higher than 4000 A/µs, and can interrupt a 900-A anode current with a 3.5-µs turn-off time and a 5.6 gate turn-off gain on application of a 100-V reverse gate bias voltage.     

Fabrication and optical-switching results on the integrated light-triggered and quenched static induction thyristor

An integrated structure of the light-triggered and light-quenched (LTQ) static induction (SI) thyristor is introduced and is fabricated by the combination of the SI thyristor and SI transistor process technology. The device consists of a buried-gate light triggered (LT) SI thyristor and a p,channel surface gate static induction photo-transistor (SIPT). An anode voltage VAKof 500 V at an anode current IAKof 1 A (600 A/cm²: channel current density) is optically switched with a triggering power ofP_{LT} = 11mW/cm²(92 µW) and a quenching power ofP_{LQ} = 11mW/cm²(110 µW) in a turn-on time of 0.7 µs and a turnoff delay time of 1.0 µs. The integrated LTQ SI thyristor is a novel type of self-turn-off power device that is turned on and off by optical means.     

Functional integration of the light-triggered static induction thyristor and the static induction phototransistor

An integrated structure of the Light-Triggered and Light-Quenched Static Induction (LTQ SI) thyristor is introduced and is fabricated by the combination of the SI thyristor and the static-induction-transistor (SIT) process technology. The device consists of a buried-gate light-triggered (LT) SI thyristor and a p-channel surface-gate static induction phototransistor (SIPT). The analog voltage VAKof 250 V at the anode Current IAKof 2 A (600 A/cm²: channel current density) is optically switched with a triggering power ofP_{LT} = 8.8mW/cm²(150 µW) and a quenching power ofP_{LQ} = 8.8mW/cm²(88 µW) in a turn-on time of 1.2 µs and a turn-off delay time of 1.2µs. The integrated LTQ SI thyristor is a novel type of the self-turn-off power switching device which is turned on and off by optical means.     

A double-gate-type static-induction thyristor

A double-gate-type static-induction thyristor (DG-SIThy) with a high blocking voltage and a high current rating has been fabricated. In this paper, a basic operational mechanism, a fabrication procedure, and the electrical characteristics of the DG-SIThy are described. In the DG-SIThy, both electron injection and hole injection are controlled by signals applied to two gale regions so that the DG-SIThy is capable of higher frequency operations than a single-gate SIThy. In the DG-SIThy, described here, both a cathode and a gate (first gate) regions have been fabricated on one side of a semiconductor wafer and both an anode and gate.(second gate) regions on another side. For realizing the DG-SIThy with a high blocking voltage and a high current rating, we have tried attentively to form a p-n junction on one side of the wafer without influencing the p-n junction on the other side, and have developed a new counter-doping technique for epitaxial growth and an improved package structure for a compression-mounted device. The DG-SIThy fabricated with these techniques has shown a for-Ward blocking voltage of 1000 V, an average current rating of 100 A, and a forward voltage drop of 1.44 V at the rated anode current. A turn-on time of 0.95 its and a turn-off time of 0.48 µs have been observed at the rated anode current and at anode voltages of 650 and 550 V, respectively. As already speculated, the DG-SIThy shows a higher switching speed and a lower forward drop than the single-gate SIThy.     

High-voltage high-power gate-assisted turn-off thyristor for high-frequency use

The fast switching thyristor with an integrated rectifier-diode connected in antiparallel to the cathode-emitter junction of auxiliary thyristor has been made. This thyristor has the ratings of blocking voltage 1200 V, average current 400 A. The turn-off time of less than 6 µs can be obtained by applying -10 V gate bias. It has the interdigitated gate structure and the high-frequency current rating more than 500 A at 10 kHz.     

High dI/dT light-triggered thyristors

Directly light-triggered, 4000- and 6000-V thyristors were designed, fabricated, and tested to obtain high performance in dI/dt, dV/dt, and photosensitivity. Built-in resistors protected both auxiliary stages during high dI/dt turn-on. The novel use of etched moats to define the resistors was compatible with an optical gate structure that gives high dV/dt and good photosensitivity. No additional processing steps were needed to fabricate these devices, as compared to standard light-triggered thyristors. A record value of 1000 A/µs at 60 Hz was measured on a 6000-V thyristor, and 850 A/µs was safely triggered with only 1.8 mW of light. The dV/dt immunity of the photogate structure measured 4000 V/µs, rising exponentially to 80 percent of 4000 V, VDRM. Thyristors triggered by dV/dt were not destroyed. A new model of resistor heating was combined with the first measurements of the current pulses through both built-in resistors to identify the mechanism responsible for occasional burn-out of the second resistor. The failure mechanism was conductivity modulation in the surface of the resistor during its microsecond on-time caused by thermally generated carriers. The test results confirmed the utility of built-in resistors for high dI/dt performance with minimal light power and for nondestructive dV/dt triggering.     

A low-loss high-speed switching device: The 2500-V 300-A static induction thyristor

An anode-emitter shorted-type 2500-V 300-A buried-gate static induction (SI) thyristor was fabricated and resulted in a very-high-speed turn-on time of 2.0 µs and a turn-off time of 3.1 µs, both at 1000 A, and in very low-loss performance due to the reduction of the tailing current. The switching loss and the conduction loss of the high-power SI thyristor is for the first time evaluated in this paper. Snubber-circuitless operation is demonstrated for the first time for the high-power SI thyristor.     

金属氧化物半导体控制晶闸管的di/dt优化

金属氧化物半导体控制晶闸管(MCT)相比于绝缘栅双极型晶体管(IGBT)具有高电流密度、低导通压降和快速开启等优势,在高压脉冲功率领域具有广阔的应用前景.作为脉冲功率开关,MCT开启过程对输出脉冲信号质量有很大影响.采用理论分析并结合仿真优化重点研究了MCT开启瞬态特性.通过对MCT开启过程进行详细地理论分析推导,给出了MCT开启过程中阳极电流和上升时间的表达式.结合Sentaurus TCAD仿真优化,将MCT开启过程中电流上升速率(di/dt)由40 kA/s提升至80 kA/s,极大地改善了器件开启瞬态特性.最后,总结提出了提高器件开启瞬间di/dt的设计途径.     

A high-power gate-controlled switch (GCS) using new lifetime control method

A high-power gate-controlled switch (GCS) with high switching speed was developed using a new method for controlling minority-carrier lifetime where both iron and gold were doped into the device. An improved temperature dependence of the forward voltage drop of the device was obtained because each of the forward voltage drops determined by iron and gold has opposite temperature dependence. The lifetime was controlled reproducibly by two-step diffusion of lifetime killers, that is, iron diffusion at high temperature and gold diffusion at lower temperatures afterwards. The relation between the forward voltage drop and the lifetime was theoretically analyzed and the agreement between the theory and experimental results was fairly good. The GCS of 0.15-cm²active area has the ratings of blocking voltage of 1500 V, available turn-off current of 160 A, forward voltage drop of 3 V at anode current of 100 A, and turn-off gain of 9. The turnoff time and turn-on time of less than 2 µs could be obtained. Thedv/dtanddi/dtare 1000 V/µs and 500 A/µs, respectively. The operation of 50 kHz at 100 A/1000 V could be realized with the inductive load of 50 µH by the GCS. The SIPOS (SemiInsulating POlycrystalline-Silicon) passivation was applied to the GCS in order to obtain the high reliability.     

Inverter light triggered thyristor with unique arm-structure amplifying gate

A 1200-V 200-A directly light triggered thyristor suitable for inverter application has been developed. A new amplifying gate design with a second amplifying stage was used in achieving a factor of 15 to 50 increase in gate sensitivity without any loss indV/dtcapability and only a small (less than a factor of two) reduction in devicedi/dtrating, despite a ten times smaller initial turn-on line length. In all, three versions were made with gate threshold currents down to 1 mA anddV/dtcapabilities to 1000 V/µs. All three types had 60-Hz di/dt capabilitLes of about 250 A/µs at 125 deg TJand turn-off times of approximately 25 µs. The new light sensitive amplifying gate stage design features a gate thyristor region with extending arms for high gate sensitivity, the inner portion of which is just large enough to accommodate initial on-region spreading duriag the short on-time of the gate stage. The arms increase gate sensitivity while contributing very little to the overalldV/dtcurrent. The turn-on speed can be accounted for by most of the inner region being turned on by the photogate pulse. Like regular electrically fired thyristors, a gate overdrive factor is important. With these devices an overdrive factor of about 3 to 5 is needed for highdi/dtturn-on whereas in an electrically triggered device this factor is closer to 10.     

3100 V, asymmetrical, gate turn-off (GTO) thyristors in 4H-SiC

A 2-mm×2-mm, 4H-SiC, asymmetrical npnp gate turn-off (GTO) thyristor with a blocking voltage of 3100 V and a forward current of 12 A is reported. This is the highest reported power handling capability of 37 kW for a single device in SiC. The 5-epilayer structure utilized a blocking layer that was 50 μm thick, p-type, doped at about 7-9×10¹⁴ cm^-3. The devices were terminated with a single zone junction termination extension (JTE) region formed by ion-implantation of nitrogen at 650°C. The device was able to reliably turn-on and turn-off 20 A (500 A/cm²) of anode current with a turn-on gain (I_K/I_{G, on}) of 20 and a turn-off gain (I_K/I_{G, off}) of 3.3     

Inductive switching of 4H-SiC gate turn-off thyristors

The high-temperature operation of a silicon carbide gate turn-off thyristor is evaluated for use in inductively loaded switching circuits. Compared to purely resistive load elements, inductive loads subject the switching device to higher internal power dissipation. The ability of silicon carbide components to operate at elevated temperatures and high power dissipations are important factors for their use in future power conversion/control systems. In this work, a maximum current density of 540 A/cm² at 600 V was switched at a frequency of 2 kHz and at several case temperatures up to 150°C. The turn-off and turn-on characteristics of the thyristor are discussed     

A new MOS-gate bipolar transistor for power switches

A new monolithic integrated power device, the MOS-gate transistor (MGT), which consists of a bipolar transistor for an output stage and two MOSFET's for a driver stage, has been investigated. The purpose of the study was to obtain a power switch having characteristics of an easy drive, a short turn-off time, and a high current density. The developed device structure featured the integration of three elements into a small cell from a large number of which the MGT chip was constructed. This device had no parasitic thyristor, making it free from the latchup phenomenon. Unit MGT devices with a blocking voltage of 400-500 V were fabricated. A high current density of 90 A/cm²at a collector-emitter voltage of 2 V and a short turn-off time of less than 1 µs were obtained. The MGT devices, which contained 36 cells, were fabricated with chip sizes of 5 × 5 mm. They exhibited a blocking voltage of 500 V, on-state voltage of 2.3 V at a current of 10 A, and turn-off time of 0.5 µs at 150°C.     

A high-current and high-temperature 6H-SiC thyristor

A 6H-SiC thyristor has been fabricated and characterized. A forward breakover voltage close to 100 V and a pulse switched current density of 5200 A/cm² have been demonstrated. The thyristor is shown to operate under pulse gate triggering for turn-on and turn-off, with a rise time of 43 ns and a fall time of less than 100 ns. The forward breakover voltage is found to decrease by only 4% when the operating temperature is increased from room temperature to 300°C. It is found that anode ohmic contact resistance dominates the device forward drop at high current densities     

Si-gate CMOS devices on a Si/CaF2/Si structure

Si-gate CMOS inverter chains and 1/8 dynamic frequency dividers have been fabricated on a Si/CaF2/Si structure. A high-quality heteroepitaxial Si/CaF2/Si structure was formed by successive molecular-beam epitaxy of CaF2and Si. Transistors have been fabricated with an improved CMOS process that prevents crystal degradation during the fabrication process as much as possible. The maximum effective mobilities are about 570 and 240 cm²/V . s for n-channel and p-channel transistors, respectively. The inverter chain with an effective channel length of 2.0 µm has a delay time per gate of 360 ps. A maximum operating frequency of 300 MHz is obtained in the divider with an effective channel length of 2.5µm at a supply voltage of 5 V. These results indicate that the Si/CaF2/Si structure has potential for the fabrication of high-speed silicon-on-insulator devices.     

Fabrication and optical-switching results of the double-gate static-induction thyristor with the first planar-gate and the second buried-gate structure

A new thyristor structure-a class of the double-gate (DG) static-induction (SI) thyristors-was fabricated and showed quick dual-gate current controllability and less turn-off tailing current, because the anode current can be controlled by both the first and the second gate and the electrons stored at the second gate can be discharged through the second gate circuit in a very short time at the turn-off process. Moreover, the DG SI thyristors have a capability of lower forward voltage drop and faster switching speed than those values of the single-gate SI thyristor.     

InP-metal barrier junctions with improved I-V characteristics

A new contact for FET gate deposition, whose technology is similar to that for MESFET's, is demonstrated in InP. We have measured a significant reduction in reverse leakage current achieving JR= 1 × 10^-3A/cm^-2at 300 K at -2 V and an improved forward turn-on voltage, enhanced from 0.25 to 1.0 V at 300 K compared to conventional Schottky barriers on InP. We have used this barrier to form the gate of n-channel FET's in InP.     

DV/DT related spurious gate turn-on of bidirectional switches in a high-frequency cycloconverter

We identified a failure mode in a two stage dc/ac converter, comprising a high-frequency dc/ac inverter followed by an ac/ac cycloconverter, both operating at the same switching frequency. The failure-mode is a short-circuit condition, which is a combined effect of the reverse recovery of the MOSFET body diode and simultaneous spurious turn-on of the bidirectional switches of the cycloconverter, owing to a significantly high dv/dt (>2/spl times/10/sup 8/V/ns). A high dv/dt causes appreciable current to flow through the gate-to-drain (Miller) capacitance, thereby producing a significant amount of voltage drop across the external gate resistance. Consequently, the gate-to-source voltage of the power MOSFET may exceed the threshold voltage of the device, which turns the device on. We explain the mechanism for the dv/dt-related gate turn-on and present experimental results to validate the explanation. We also demonstrate, how a two-fold increase in the value of external gate resistance of the inverter switches (to reduce the dv/dt applied to the cycloconverter) reduces the periodicity of the short-circuit condition.     

101-Stage 2 µm gate ring oscillators in laser-grown silicon islands embedded in SiO2

E/D MOS test transistors and 101-stage 2 µm gate E/D MOS ring oscillators were fabricated in laser-grown single- and multicrystal islands embedded in oxide substrates. Most transistors showed goodI-Vcharacteristics, short-channel effects, and kink effects. Ring oscillators had a switching delay per stage (τPd) of 0.4 ns and a power-delay product (τ_{Pd} middot P_{d}) of 2.5 PJ at a supply voltage (VDD) of 10-15 V. It was noted that different crystal orientations of the islands posed no difficulty in processing and VTcontrol when applied to short channel devices, and that enhanced boundary diffusion results in occasional malfunctional transistors and erroneous high surface electron mobilities (µse).     

High-power dual amplifying gate light triggered thyristors

The feasibility of directly light triggering a high power phase control thyristor is investigated. Work is described on an optically triggered gated 53-mm diameter 2600-V 1000-A thyristor which is similar to an electrically gated production version. Test results describing the response of this thyristor to various optical signals are presented. Our work has shown that this cell can be directly triggered by light at an equivalent gate current which is a factor of three below its present dynamic gate requirements and still largely retain all its blocking and dynamic characteristics. This improvement is obtained by the use of a second very sensitive amplifying gate stage which is responsive to light. All wafer processing of the light sensitive thyristor was carried out on standard production lines. Tests made on static dV/dt, di/dt, blocking voltage, and leakage current on light sensitive devices all closely match parameters of the standard electrically fired equivalent cell.