Effect of magnetic field on the turn-on characteristics of power semiconductor devices operated in pulsed power circuit

Author

Yasuoka, Koichi ; Matsumoto, Yasuhiro ; Aoki, Takashi ; Tamura, Yukihiko ; Ibuka, Shinji ; Ishii, Shozo

Author_Institution

Tokyo Inst. of Technol., Japan

fYear

2002

fDate

30 June-3 July 2002

Firstpage

591

Lastpage

594

Abstract

The turn-on characteristics of power semiconductor devices are evaluated under external magnetic field for studying the effect of external magnetic field generated in a pulsed power circuit. Two pin diodes that have a basic structure of power devices are connected in parallel and driven by a pulsed voltage source. It was found the magnetic field applied perpendicular to the diode current-flow could balance the diode current with that of the other diode. The carrier-density distribution inside of the diodes was measured by using a free carrier absorption technique. The data show that the carrier distribution changes from nearly the uniform one to the one-sided one. This concentration seems to be caused by the Lorenz force with the application of external magnetic field. As a result of the carrier concentration, the on-state resistance of the diode increases with increasing the magnetic field strength.

Keywords

carrier density; magnetic field effects; p-i-n diodes; power semiconductor diodes; power semiconductor switches; pulse generators; pulsed power supplies; pulsed power switches; semiconductor device measurement; semiconductor device testing; Lorenz force; carrier density distribution; diode current balancing; external magnetic field; free carrier absorption technique; on-state resistance; pin diodes; power semiconductor devices; pulsed power circuit; pulsed voltage source; turn-on characteristics; Absorption; Character generation; Magnetic circuits; Magnetic field measurement; Power generation; Power semiconductor devices; Pulse circuits; Pulse generation; Semiconductor diodes; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Power Modulator Symposium, 2002 and 2002 High-Voltage Workshop. Conference Record of the Twenty-Fifth International

ISSN

1076-8467

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7540-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MODSYM.2002.1189548

Filename

1189548