Vertical channel field-controlled thyristors with high gain and fast switching speeds

A new, planar, surface-grid, field-controlled thyristor (FCT) structure is described. The structure is fabricated by using orientation-dependent (preferential) etching and selective vapor epitaxial growth to obtain vertical grid walls. The resulting high channel-length-to-width aspect ratio produces devices with high blocking gains and fast gate turnoff speeds. Devices have been fabricated with the capability of blocking more than 1000 V with an applied grid bias of 32 V, and simultaneously exhibiting a low forward voltage drop in the on-state. These surface-grid devices exhibit gate turnoff capability with turnoff times of less than 500 ns at a rated cathode-anode current of 1 A.     

Cryogenic operation of asymmetric field controlled thyristors

Detailed measurements and modeling of 500 V asymmetric field controlled thyristor characteristics in the 300–77 K temperature range are presented for the first time. When the temperature is reduced from 300 to 77 K, it has been found that: the forward voltage drop increases by about 40%; the breakdown voltage reduces by 20%; the blocking gain remains essentially constant; the turn-off time reduces by 10 × and the gate charge withdrawn via the gate current flow during turn-off reduces by 95 ×. The forward voltage drop versus turn-off time trade-off curve obtained by temperature reduction is found to be much superior to that obtained by electron radiation.     

MOS-gated thyristors (MCTs) for repetitive high power switching

Certain applications for pulse power require narrow, high current pulses for their implementation. This work was performed to determine if MOS controlled thyristors (MCTs) could be used for these applications. The MCTs were tested as discharge switches in a low inductance circuit delivering 1 μs pulses at currents between roughly 3 kA and 11 kA, single shot and repetitively at 1, 10, and 50 Hz. Although up to 9000 switching events could be obtained, all the devices failed at some combination of current and repetition rate. Failure was attributed to temperature increases caused by average power dissipated in the thyristor during the switching sequence. A simulation was performed to confirm that the temperature rise was sufficient to account for failure. Considerable heat sinking, and perhaps a better thermal package, would be required before the MCT could be considered for pulse power applications     

Grid depth dependence of the characteristics of vertical channel field controlled thyristors

The effect of changing grid depth upon the characteristics of vertical channel field controlled thyristors has been experimentally studied. It is found that increasing the grid depth results in an exponential increase in the differential blocking gain, and a significant decrease in the turn-off time, with no detrimental effect upon the forward conduction characteristics.     

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     

高效率可调复合式开关电源

结合实例介绍基于单片开关式稳压器和单片开关电源相组合构成的复合式开关电源。这种电源与普通开关电源相比，输出电压可连续调节；与线性稳压电源相比，体积小、效率高。     

Progress in light activated power thyristors

Light activated power thyristors would have considerable advantages in intermediate- and high-voltage circuits, as power and trigger circuits could be electrically separated by use of glass fiber cables. Besides high-voltage capability, such devices must have turn-on delay times, dv/dt capabilities, and di/dt stabilities which are comparable to conventionally fired thyristors. The necessary trigger power, however, has to be kept low enough to enable firing with GaAs light emitters, which are available now or will be in the near future. The dv/dt sensitivity is an essential limitation for the reduction of the minimum necessary trigger power. Optimizing of the thyristor emitter shunts results in an already acceptable compromise, but much better results can be obtained by a gate structure which actively compensates dv/dt fault triggering. Our test devices show good turn-on behavior. A short survey on different GaAs-light sources and the coupling problem is given.     

Electron-beam controlled switching using quartz and polycrystallineZnS

Results of electron-beam controlled switching experiments with switch samples of quartz crystal and polycrystalline zinc selenide (ZnSe) are presented. For switch samples of both materials, drastic reductions of the switch resistance were induced by the electron beam. The quartz sample showed very fast temporal response (less than 1 ns) with potential applicability for current control. The ZnSe samples, on the other hand, showed longer current transients (on the order of 10 ns) with exponential development of the switch resistance after the electron beam pulse     

Predicting the surge capability of power thyristors

A simple and efficient computer-aided method developed for correct prediction of maximum surge capability of power thyristors under single and repetitive 50 Hz halfsine waves of overload current is presented in detail. The validity of the developed method was confirmed by experimental results.     

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.     

Single resistance controlled oscillator using unity gain cells

A new variable frequency oscillator using unity gain cells is proposed whose frequency and gain controllability is provided by resistive elements. The oscillator can operate as an active-R system and it is suitable for fully integrated fabrication. Measurement results are also included that confirm the high proposed structure capabilities.     

高增益S波段小型化200 W功率模块研制技术

采用多级射频放大电路以及高压脉冲调制技术,实现了S波段高增益小型化200 W功率模块的研制。驱动放大电路采用GaAs功率单片进行功率合成;末级放大电路依托栅长(0.5 μm) GaN高电子迁移率晶体管(HEMT)芯片,选取多子胞结构来改善热分布,通过内匹配技术设计完成了双胞总栅宽24 mm GaN芯片的匹配网络,并设计高压脉冲调制电路提供电源,成功研制出了小型化的S波段200 W内匹配GaN功率模块。测试得出该模块实现了在输入功率10 dBm,栅极电压-5 V,漏极电压32 V,TTL调制信号输入条件下,输出频率在3.1~3.5 GHz处,输出功率大于200 W,功率附加效率(PAE)大于55%。模块实际尺寸为2.4 mm×38 mm×5.5 mm。     

A noise-shaped switching power supply using a delta-sigma modulator

A technique to reduce in-band tones in switch-mode power supplies is described. It takes advantage of the noise-shaping properties of the delta-sigma (/spl Delta//spl Sigma/) modulator to eliminate the spikes normally present in switching power supplies. A framework is introduced for comparing the conventional pulsewidth modulated (PWM) controller and this approach. A buck converter test circuit is constructed that is designed for a PWM controller clocked at 200 kHz and then substituted with a /spl Delta//spl Sigma/ modulator controller clocked at 400 kHz. The RMS noise power of the PWM controller is 14.9 mW compared to the rms noise power for the /spl Delta//spl Sigma/ modulator of 75.85 mW measured in a 2-MHz bandwidth. Although the /spl Delta//spl Sigma/ modulator rms noise power is higher, the noise floor is below the tones seen at the output of the PWM controller. A multibit /spl Delta//spl Sigma/ modulator controller, however, provides a significant reduction in the spectral output of the power supply. Values of 3.75 and 0.24 mW rms noise power are observed at the output of a 2-bit and 4-bit /spl Delta//spl Sigma/ modulator controller, respectively.     

Three-phase AC-to-AC series-resonant power converter with a reducednumber of thyristors

Power pulse modulation with internal frequencies of tens of kHz and suited for multikilowatt power levels is applied to a series-resonant converter (SRC) system for generating synthesized multiphase bipolar waveforms with reversible power flow and low distortion. The high pulse frequency allows the application of the principle of modulation and demodulation for fast system response. The use of an SRC for power transfer and control obtains natural current commutation of the thyristors and the prevention of excessive stresses on components. Switches with bidirectional current conduction and voltage blocking ability are required. The conventional series-resonant AC-AC converter applies a total for 24 antiparallel thyristors. An alternative circuit configuration for the series-resonant AC-AC converter with only 12 thyristors is presented. Use of the converter results in a higher efficiency and lower costs     

Efficiency enhancement for power amplifiers using dynamic bias switching technique

A dynamic bias switching technique is presented which discretely switches supply voltages according to the signal envelope level. For the detected envelope signals which ate lower than an appropriate threshold, this technique dynamically switches the transistor's drain bias to a significantly lower voltage. For verification, a dynamic bias switching system, applied to a class-AB power amplifier for the 859 MHz band, was implemented. Using a down-link wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) signal, improved output power of 0.5 dB from 30.5 to 31 dBm, and improved PAE of 8.1% points from 27.4 to 35.5% wete achieved at a given ACLR level of -30 dBc compared to the conventional single-supplied class-AB amplifier.     

Buried-grid field-controlled thyristors fabricated using silicon liquid-phase epitaxy

Field-controlled thyristors with the buried-grid device structure have been fabricated by using a recently developed silicon liquid-phase epitaxial growth technology. Using this epitaxial growth technique, closely spaced boron-doped buried-grid regions can be fabricated without autodoping problems. This has allowed the development of high-voltage devices with large blocking gains. The new epitaxial growth technology is potentially useful for the manufacturing of large-area (high-current) devices of this type.     

Half-bridge inverter using 4H-SiC gate turn-off thyristors

This paper reports on the first demonstration of a half-bridge power inverter constructed from silicon carbide gate turn-off thyristors (GTOs) operated in the conventional GTO mode. This circuit was characterized with input bus voltages of up to 600 VDC and 2 A (peak current density of 540 A/cm²) with resistive loads using a pulse-width modulated switching frequency of 2 kHz. We discuss the implications of the thyristor's electrical characteristics and the circuit topology on the overall operation of the half-bridge circuit. This work has determined the conservative critical rate of rise value of the off-state voltage to be 200 V/μs in these devices     

Accurate calculations of the forward drop and power dissipation in thyristors

Four-layer power thyristors are analyzed using exact numerical solutions of the full set of semiconductor device equations together with the heat-flow equation. Included in the analysis are the physical mechanisms of carrier-carrier scattering, Auger and SRH recombination, and band-gap narrowing. The experimental current-voltage curves for three-thyristor structures are compared with the theoretical predictions and are shown to be in good agreement. The limiting effects on device behavior of the physical mechanisms noted above, including heat-sink thermal impedance, are investigated over the range of device operating conditions. The distribution of power dissipation throughout the device is shown and compared with the distribution of recombination in the device. The theory of calculating power dissipation in a semiconductor is also discussed.     

Germanium power switching devices

Two-terminal and three-terminal germanium power switching devices have been developed, utilizing a metal semiconductor contact as an electron injector in a multijunction device. The principles of operation, fabrication techniques, and electrical characteristics of this new device are discussed. Devices capable of switching up to 25 amperes and blocking up to 350 volts have been fabricated and applied to power control circuits. The low impedance voltage drop is of the order of 0.5 volt and the dynamic resistance is a few hundredths of an ohm. A switch-on time less than 0.1 microsecond has been measured with a switch-off time of the order of microseconds.