Novel plugged p/sup +/ collector structure for high-performance IGBT

For the first time, a novel plugged p⁺ collector is proposed for the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) and evaluated in detail by using two-dimensional numerical simulations as an effective method to control the collector injection efficiency and enhance the turn-off performance. Extensive simulations indicate the turn-off time of this device is reduced and the forward blocking capability is improved significantly compared to the conventional IGBT. Most importantly, the proposed IGBT breaks the deadlock between the low on-state energy loss and fast speed by engineering the whole heavy-doped p⁺ collector into a high-injection-efficiency heavy-doped p ⁺ region and a low-injection-efficiency lightly doped p- region to offer a more superior on-state/switching tradeoff. The heavily doped p⁺ region assures an optimum level of conductivity modulation required for a reasonable on-state voltage drop in the n^- drift region, while the lightly doped p^- region accelerates the device´s turn-off. These advantages make this device an attractive candidate for high-frequency high-power applications