The maximum controllable current of emitter switched thyristors employing the segmented P-base

The maximum controllable current of an EST, which employs the segmented p-b ase (SB-EST), is investigated with the various design parameters, such as p -base surface doping concentration, segmented gate length and carrier lifet ime, by performing 2 dimensional numerical simulation. The simulation resul ts show that the maximum controllable current of the SB-EST with the p-base surface doping concentration of 5 x 10(17) cm(-3) is 900 A/cm(2), while th at of the conventional EST is 540 A/cm(2). The SB-EST shows 52% higher maxi mum controllable current that the conventional EST independent of the carri er lifetime (0.1 mu s to 0.5 mu s).