Physics‐based compact model of integrated gate‐commutated thyristor with multiple effects for high‐power application

Abstract

This paper presents a physics-based compact model of integrated gate-commutated thyristor (IGCT) with multiple effects for high power application. The proposed model has both acceptable accuracy and computation time requirement, which is suitable for system level circuit simulation and IGCT's whole wafer modelling work. First, the development of IGCT model is discussed and the one-dimension phenomenon of IGCT is analyzed in the paper. Second, a physics-based compact model of IGCT is proposed. The proposed model of IGCT includes multiple physical effects that are crucial to IGCTs working in high power applications. These physical effects include the impact ionization effect, moving boundary of depletion region during punch-thourgh (PT) and the local lifetime region. The Fourier series solution is applied for the ambipolar diffusion equation in the base region. Third, the proposed model is implemented in Simulink and compared with the model in Silvaco Atlas, a finite-element (FEM) tool. Finally, the proposed compact model of IGCT is validated by experiments. Keywords-physics-based compact model, local lifetime region, gate commutated thyristors, punch through, power semiconductor modeling NOMENCLATURE A Total active area. (cm 2) q Electric charge (J) Si Dielectric constant for silicon. (F/cm 2) k Boltzmann's constant. (J/K) T Absolute temperature. (K) Vt=kT/q Thermal Voltage. (V) n0 Electron mobility. (cm 2 /Vs) p0 Hole mobility. (cm 2 /Vs) D Ambipoar diffusivity. (cm 2 /s) Dn Electron diffusivity. (cm 2 /s) Dp Hole diffusivity. (cm 2 /s) h Recombination parameter. (cm 2) J Current density. (A/cm 2) In1,Ip1 Electron and hole current at x1 edge of undepleted drift region. (A) In2,Ip2 Electron and hole current at x2 edge of undepleted drift region. (A) IA Total anode current. (A) IC Total cathode current. (A) IG Total gate current. (A) NB N-base region doping concentration. (cm-3) NPb P-base region doping concentration. (cm-3) NNb N-base region doping concentration. (cm-3) ni Intrinsic carrier concentration. (cm-3) n Electron carrier concentration. (cm-3) p Hole carrier concentration. (cm-3) px1 Hole carrier density at x1. (cm-3) px2 Hole carrier density at x2. (cm-3) t Time. (s) HL High-level lifetime. (s) LL Low-level lifetime. (s) Vd Voltage across depletion region. (V) W Thickness of stored charge region. (cm) WB Thickness of N-base region. (cm) WN+ Thickness of N-base region. (cm) WPb Thickness of P-base region. (cm) WNb Thickness of N-buffer region. (cm) IET Review Copy Only IET Power Electronics This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication in an issue of the journal. To cite the paper please use the doi provided on the Digital Library page.