Technology Status and Development of SiC GTO Thyristor

Abstract

In recent years, high-voltage power devices based on wide-band gap semiconductor material such as silicon carbide (SiC)have developed rapidly. Among high voltage SiC power devices, gate turn-off thyristor (GTO) has advantages such as high blocking voltage, high current , fast turn-off, low forward voltage drop, high temperature resistance, etc. It mainly elaborated the development history and status of SiC GTO in terms of substrate materials, epitaxial materials, carrier lifetime, blocking voltage and so on, introduced silicon carbide emitter turn-off thyristor(SiC ETO) with improved switching characteristics of SiC GTO, and analyzed the on-state and blocking characteristic of 6 500 V SiC ETO. Experimental results demonstrated the fast turn-off characteristic of ETO. In the end, it prespected the research and development of SiC GTO thyristor technology from device and its application.

Keywords

• SiC
• gate turn-off thyristors (GTO)
• breakdown voltage
• emitter gate turn-off thyristors (ETO)
• carrier lifetime