Study of process of avalanche switching of silicon thyristors without bias voltage

Abstract

Operation of the high-power thyristor without bias voltage switching in the impact-ionization mode was studied by numerical simulation methods. In calculations, the rate of voltage build-up on the dV/dt structure varied from 0.5 to 10 kV/ns, the temperature of the T structure was from 25 to 200 °C. It is shown that the increase in temperature affects the process of switching thyristors both due to an increase in the rate of thermal generation of carriers, and due to a decrease in the intensity of impact ionization processes. During switching processes of impact ionization occur at the same time in two regions of n-base: in the part of a base filled with the majority carriers and in the space charge region (SCR) near the n-p junction. At T>180 °C, owing to increase in concentration of thermo-generated carriers in the base, ionization processes occur only in SCR. It leads to increase in duration of switching process and increase in residual voltage. However, despite it if dV/dt>9 kV/ns, the effect of fast switching of the thyristor exists up to 200 °C. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.