Experimental characteristics of semiconductor opening switch diode

This paper describes experimental characteristics of a semiconductor opening switch (SOS) diode. After minority carriers were accumulated in the SOS by forward pumping current, reverse current flows while minority carriers are turned back. The reverse current interruption is caused due to the decrease of minority carriers in p-n area. An influence of the forward pumping current on interruption time of the reverse current was investigated. The result shows that if the peak of reverse current is not varied, a few accumulated carriers lead to fast current interruption. This is because the amount of carriers turned back is few. Further, the peak voltage and the efficiency increased with a decrease of interruption time of the reverse current. We expect that low and short forward pumping current and high reverse current lead to fast current interruption.