Study on Transient Turn-On Characteristics of Pulse Power Thyristor-Type Devices Under Ultrahigh di/dt Condition

Abstract

Specially optimized thyristor-type devices for fast turn-on and high <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{d}{i}/\text{d}{t}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> capability are promising in pulse power applications. In this work, the transient turn-on characteristics of MOS-gate triggered and current-gate triggered thyristor-type devices operating at ultrahigh <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{d}{i}/\text{d}{t}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> conditions are first studied. The injected charge transport process is theoretically analyzed and modeled by considering the effect of the transient electric field, during short pulse duration, which then clearly reveals the difference between the MOS-gate triggered and current-gate triggered thyristor-type devices on the transient turn-on characteristics. TCAD simulations and experimental measurements are carried out to verify the transient turn-on process. The theoretical, simulated, and experimental results show that the MOS-gate triggered thyristor has better turn-on characteristics than the current-gate triggered thyristor, which attributes to the reduced turn-on step and consequently stronger conductivity modulation. This work helps further optimization of thyristor-type devices achieving fast turn-on and high- <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{d}{i}/\text{d}{t}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> capability.