The dual gate EST: a new MOS-gated thyristor structure

Abstract

In this paper, the characteristics of a new MOS-gated thyristor-the Dual Gate Emitter Switched Thyristor (DG-EST)-are presented. The DG-EST consists of a Dual Channel Emitter Switched Thyristor (DC-EST) section and a Conventional Emitter Switched Thyristor (C-EST) section with a common main thyristor region that can be controlled using two independent gate electrodes. This device has a lower on-state voltage drop than the C-EST and at the same time possesses the high voltage current saturation feature of the DC-EST. The DG-EST has been found to exhibit a much higher parasitic thyristor latch-up current density than the C-EST and the DC-EST structures and has a superior trade-off curve between on-state voltage drop and turn-off time when compared to the C-EST structure.