The asymmetrical field-controlled thyristor

Abstract

A new device structure has been developed for field-controlled thyristors. In this structure, the uniformly doped n base of the conventional device has been replaced with a very lightly doped region near the gate and a more heavily doped region at the anode. This change in the base doping profile results in a significant improvement in the tradeoff between the forward-blocking voltage capability and the on-state forward-voltage drop. In addition, the high-resistivity region around the gate area allows the device to pinch off anode current flow at zero gate bias due to the built-in potential of the gate junction. The devices can, however, be triggered to the on-state by applying a small forward gate voltage and exhibit a forward voltage drop in the on-state which is much lower than that of conventional devices. The high resistivity of the channel area between gates also results in these devices having dc blocking gains in excess of 60, which is the highest value achieved in devices of this type. Further, because these devices have been fabricated using conventional planar processing techniques, this structure is suitable for high-volume production with high processing yields.