A study on the variation of carrier lifetime with temperature in bipolar silicon devices and its influence on device operation

Abstract

This paper presents a study on the variation of carrier lifetime with temperature, mainly in GTO-thyristors, and its consequences on measured and simulated device behaviour (gate trigger current). A theoretical analysis is given in order to explain the results qualitatively. From the observed temperature dependence of the gate trigger current the appropriate /spl tau/(T)-law is inferred. In the region of 25/spl deg/C to 125/spl deg/C a strictly linear increase of /spl tau/ is found.