THE DV DT CAPABILITY OF MOS-GATED THYRISTORS

In this paper, a detailed study of the dV/dt capability of MOS-gated t hyristors is performed, It is shown that in addition to the convention al mode of dV/dt-induced turn on in thyristors, termed the intrinsic m ode, there exists another distinct mode of dV/dt-induced turn on pecul iar to the MOS-gated thyristor structure, which me term the extrinsic dV/dt mode. The effective dV/dt capability is determined by both modes and is degraded by the presence of an external gate-cathode resistanc e and parasitic gate-anode capacitance. The existence of these two mod es of dV/dt-induced turn on is demonstrated experimentally, and the ef fect of device parameters on the dV/dt capability is studied.