8000-V 1000-A gate turn-off thyristor with low on-state voltage and low switching loss

Kekura, Mitsuru; Akiyama, Hirokazu; Tani, Masanori; Yamada, Shinichi

doi:10.1109/63.60686

Cited by 21 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 2 publications

(3 reference statements)

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“…The anode-shorted structure has been successfully proposed in Si thyristors to decrease the turn-off time and the turn-off loss induced by long carrier lifetime of Si material (i.e. tens of μs or even several ms) [28][29][30][31]. Even though SiC thyristors never suffer from long carrier lifetime (∼μs), this structure may also bring similar benefit for SiC thyristors and furthur reduce the total power loss from device level.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation on 4H-SiC gate turn-off thyristor with direct carrier extraction access to drift region for power conversion applications

Liang

Wang

Fang

et al. 2020

Semicond. Sci. Technol.

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4H-SiC gate turn-off (GTO) thyristor offers extraordinary advantages over its counterparts in handling ultra-high voltage electric power conversion applications because of its relatively low forward voltage drop at high conduction current density. Besides, though the SiC thyristors never suffer from long carrier liftime induced large switching loss like Si thyristors, the peak temperature rise rather than dynamic avalanche breakdown is blamed for the safe operation area (SOA) failure, making further reduction of power loss in SiC GTOs even more important. In this paper, a 20 kV SiC GTO with direct carrier extraction access to its drift region (DA-GTO) is investigated to explore the benefit this structure could bring for SiC thyristors, namely achieving smaller switching loss and/or potential larger SOA with slight sacrifice in forward voltage drop at high current. The structure is formed by interleaved P + ion implantation into part of the thin N-injector layer based on conventional 20 kV SiC GTO. The SiC DA-GTO operates in BJT mode at low current, and in GTO mode with low forward voltage drop at high current. During turn-off process, it offers a direct current path to quickly sweep out the excess carriers in the P-drift region, thus speeds up the turn-off process and decreases the turn-off loss. Simulation results show that its turn-off loss reduces by 37.4%, contributing to 12.6% reduction in total power loss, compared with SiC GTO. Therefore, SiC DA-GTO is a very promising choice for next-generation power conversion systems.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation on 4H-SiC gate turn-off thyristor with direct carrier extraction access to drift region for power conversion applications

Liang

Wang

Fang

et al. 2020

Semicond. Sci. Technol.

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“…But unfortunately, the turn-off time of the thyristor is increased. In view of this, we consult the method to gain low turn-off loss in Si thyristor by the anode-or cathode-shorts [10,11] to improve the turn-off characteristics in SiC thyristors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultra-high voltage 4H-SiC gate turn-off thyristor for low switching time*

Liu¹,

Pu²,

Wang

2019

Chinese Phys. B

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An ultra-high voltage 4H-silicon carbide (SiC) gate turn-off (GTO) thyristor for low switching time is proposed and analyzed by numerical simulation. It features a double epitaxial p-base in which an extra electrical field is induced to enhance the transportation of the electrons in the thin p-base and reduce recombination. As a result, the turn-on characteristics are improved. What is more, to obtain a low turn-off loss, an alternating p+/n+ region formed in the backside acts as the anode in the GTO thyristor. Consequently, another path formed by the reverse-biased n+–p junction accelerates the fast removal of excess electrons during turn-off. This work demonstrates that the turn-on time and turn-off time of the new structure are reduced to 37 ns and 783.1 ns, respectively, under a bus voltage of 8000 V and load current of 100 A/cm2.

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“…To reduce the turn-off switching loss and current tail of many GTOs, a structure known as anode shorting is employed [6][7]. In this structure, a small portion of the internal n-region is shorted to the anode contact, which partially bypasses the p region at the anode, as shown in Fig.…”

Section: Failure Issues Related To the Parasitic Diode Of The Etomentioning

confidence: 99%

Abnormal failure mechanism of the asymmetrical emitter turn-off thyristor in high-frequency converters

Motto²,

Huang³

Conference Record of the 2001 IEEE Industry Applications Conference. 36th IAS Annual Meeting (Cat. No.01CH37248)

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The Emitter Turn-Off thyristor (ETO) is a newMOS-controlled thyristor that is suitable for use in highpower converters due to its improved switching performance and easy control. This paper analyzes the abnormal failures related to the parasitic diode of the ETO in high-frequency converters for the first time. To prevent this failure, several solutions are proposed and improved ETOs are developed. Experimental results show that the proposed solutions can properly solve this problem. I. INTROUDUCTIONIn the past decade, power conversion technology developed very fast due to the emerging of advanced power semiconductor devices. High power converters are increasingly used in drives for heavy-duty traction, power quality management, and magnetic energy storage systems. The Emitter Turn-Off Thyrisor (ETO) is a new type of GTO technology based superior high power semiconductor devices that is suitable to apply in high power converters [1][2][3][4]. By properly packaging commercial GTOs and MOSFETs together, the ETO achieves fast switching speed, snubberless turn-off capability and voltage-control. These merits enable the ETO the capability of high power and high switching frequency. The high frequency operation of a megawatt voltage source inverter equipped with ETOs has been demonstrated by the authors in [4]. However, a new failure issue related to the parasitic diode of the ETO in converter applications is also discovered [5]. This paper analyzes the failure mechanism for this kind of failure for the first time. Possible solutions are proposed and verified. II. FAILURE ISSUES RELATED TO THE PARASITIC DIODE OF THE ETOA. The Parasitic Diode of the Asymmetrical ETO.To reduce the turn-off switching loss and current tail of many GTOs, a structure known as anode shorting is employed [6][7]. In this structure, a small portion of the internal n-region is shorted to the anode contact, which partially bypasses the p region at the anode, as shown in Fig. 1(a). This structure helps to remove the excess carriers in the N-base region quickly during the turn-off transient so the duration of the current tail is short. This structure also serves to reduce the gain of the PNP transistor portion of the GTO and therefore the amplitude of the current tail is reduced. So the turn-off switching loss of anode-short GTO is reduced and the switching speed is improved.Trading off its superior switching performance, the anode shorted GTO can only block a low reverse voltage (about 20 V) and has higher conduction loss due to less conductivity modulation. Another problem of the anode shorted GTO which is less obvious is that there is now a parasitic diode D P from the gate to the anode. An equivalent representation of the anode shorted GTO considering the parasitic diode is shown in Fig. 1. Anode Cathode Gate (a) Anode Cathode GTO P+ N P N+ J3 J2 J1 N+ Gate P-i-n Diode (b) GTO D P Fig. 1 Anode short GTO equivalent representation based on (a) device model, and (b) circuit model.To improve the switching performance, the anode shorted GTOs are usual...

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8000-V 1000-A gate turn-off thyristor with low on-state voltage and low switching loss

Cited by 21 publications

References 2 publications

Investigation on 4H-SiC gate turn-off thyristor with direct carrier extraction access to drift region for power conversion applications

Investigation on 4H-SiC gate turn-off thyristor with direct carrier extraction access to drift region for power conversion applications

Ultra-high voltage 4H-SiC gate turn-off thyristor for low switching time*

Abnormal failure mechanism of the asymmetrical emitter turn-off thyristor in high-frequency converters

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