Silicon diode evaluated as rectifier for wide-pulse switching applications

Silicon diode chips (¿S-diodes¿) designed by Silicon Power Corporation were explored as a more power-dense, lighter-weight replacement for traditional hockey-puk diodes in pulse switching applications. The 3.5 cm² S-diode has the same area as Silicon Power´s Super-GTO chip with reverse blocking capability above 6 kV. The diodes evaluated in this study were individually packaged at Silicon Power, then statically characterized and pulsed at the Army Research Laboratory. In series with the SGTO, the diode was pulsed with a half-sine shaped current of 5.5 kA with a pulse width of 1 ms. The action was calculated to be 1.6 × 10⁴ A²s with a peak power of about 55 kW. The diode was also utilized in a crowbar configuration, clamping negative current ringing from the circuit´s inductance. In this function, the diode blocked 4.5 kV DC and then conducted 2.0 kA. Several diodes were individually pulsed in the circuit for 1000 shots at this level without increasing forward drop or reverse leakage, demonstrating feasibility for use in high-voltage, wide-pulse power systems.