Characteristics of the emitter-switched thyristor

The first experimental demonstration of 600-V emitter-switched thyristors fabricated using an IGBT (insulated-gate bipolar transistor) process sequence is reported. The forward drop is less than that for the IGBT, but larger than that for a thyristor by about 0.5 V due to the thyristor current flowing via the MOSFET channel. A unique characteristic observed for these devices, not exhibited by any previous MOS-gated thyristor structures, is gate-controlled current saturation even after thyristor latch-up. Switching tests were performed up to a current density of 1000 A/cm/sup 2/ on single-unit cells and the measured turn-off times were about 7 mu s. >

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