Minority carrier lifetime control in the gate-controlled switch

This paper discusses methods of controlling the turn-off gain of the gate-controlled switch. Goldey has shown that the turn-off gain of a gate-controlled switch can be given by β = α1α1+α2-1 where α1and α2represent the current gain across the gated and ungated base layers. If the minority carrier lifetime of the n-base layer is adjusted so that α2is slightly larger than 1 - α1the turn-off gain will be high.