MOS AND BIPOLAR GATED THYRISTOR - A THYRISTOR WITH IGBT SWITCHING CHARACTERISTICS

The IGBT has become the device of choice in many high-voltage-power el ectronic applications, by virtue of combining the ease of MOS gate con trol with an acceptable forward voltage drop. However, designers have retained an interest in MOS gated thyristor structures which have a tu rn-off capability. These offer low on-state losses as a result of thei r latching behaviour. Recently, there have proposals for dual-gate dev ices that have a thyristor on-state with IGBT-like switching. Many of these dual gated structures rely on advanced MOS technology, with inhe rent manufacturing difficulties. The MOS and bipolar gated thyristor o ffers all the advantages of dual gated performance, while employing st andard IGBT processing techniques. The paper describes the MBGT in det ail, and presents experimental and simulation results for devices base d on realistic commercial processes. It is shown that the MBGT represe nts a viable power semiconductor device technology, suitable for a. di verse range of applications.