A new lateral anode switched thyristor (LAST) with current saturation and low turn-off time

Author

You-Sang Lee ; Soo-Seong Kim ; Jae-Keun Oh ; Yearn-Ik Choi ; Min-Koo Han

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. Eng., Seoul Nat. Univ., South Korea

Volume

23

Issue

7

fYear

2002

fDate

7/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

413

Lastpage

415

Abstract

A novel MOS-gate controlled thyristor, entitled lateral anode switched thyristor (LAST), which exhibits a high current saturation and a low turn-off time, is proposed and successfully fabricated. Experimental results show that the new LAST achieves a current saturation capability larger than 1200 A/cm² even at high anode voltages. The forward voltage drop of LAST is 1.2 V at 100 A/cm² where 10 V was biased to the dual gates. The turn-off time of LAST without any lifetime-control process is 1.5 μs while that of LAST without p/sup +/ diverter is about 2.9 μs. Our experimental data indicates that the p/sup +/ diverter successfully diverts holes in the drift region during the turn-off and a turn-off time is considerably decreased in the proposed LAST. The LAST, where any trouble-some parasitic thyristor mechanism is eliminated, completely suppresses a latch-up and increases the maximum controllable current considerably.

Keywords

MOS-controlled thyristors; insulated gate bipolar transistors; oxidation; power bipolar transistors; LOCOS; MOS-gate controlled thyristor; conventional IGBT fabrication process; current saturation; forward current-voltage characteristics; forward voltage drop; hole diverter; latch-up suppression; lateral anode switched thyristor; low turn-off time; p/sup +/ diverter; safe operating area; wet oxidation; Anodes; Cathodes; Impedance; Insulated gate bipolar transistors; MOSFET circuits; Power MOSFET; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Switches; Thyristors; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2002.1015222

Filename

1015222