Silicon Power Devices

Abstract

AbstractAccording to a recent market survey and forecast on power devices (Fuji Keizai Co., Ltd website. https://www.fuji-keizai.co.jp/, 5 Jun 2019 (in Japanese)), the global device market in 2018 stood at about 3.0 trillion Japanese yen (about 27.3 billion USD); and of this total, SiC (silicon carbide) and GaN (gallium nitride) power devices accounted for slightly less than 41 billion Japanese yen (about 373 million USD), or as little as roughly 1.4% of the silicon power semiconductor device market. Despite numerous reports that SiC and GaN power devices exhibit far better characteristics than silicon power devices, the latter make up by far the largest segment of the power devices market. In the same forecast, by 2030, while the global power device market will grow by about 66% to 4.9 trillion Japanese yen (about 44.9 billion USD), the SiC and GaN power device market will not even make up 12% of the global market. Why would the silicon power device market maintain such a large market segment? Rapid technological advancement in silicon power devices has led to improvement in cost performance, which has dampened the motivation to adopt SiC and GaN power devices. In this chapter, the device structure and design concept of a variety of silicon power devices, and salient features and drawbacks of these devices are analyzed. In addition, it will present a brief history of their development and wrap up the state-of-the-art structures and characteristics of such devices.KeywordsPower metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (power MOSFETs)U-MOSFETsSuperjunctionInsulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs)Safe operating areas (SOAs)Junction temperatureInjection enhancement effectField-stop or soft punch-through structuresMOS gate thyristorsPower rectifiers