Device simulation of carrier lifetime‐controlled GTO

Recent development of power semiconductor devices has produced remarkable advances in power electronics. Among them, the gate turn-off thyristor (GTO) is one of the most important devices. Carrier lifetime-controlled devices have been proposed recently to realize low turn-off switching loss. Thus, computer simulation for the device is now necessary to predict its characteristics. In this study, we simulated a carrier lifetime-controlled GTO with the FEM program. Lifetime control, such as heavy metal diffusion and electron beam irradiation, showed a trade-off relation between on-state and turn-off conditions. Partial lifetime control, which generates lattice defects locally by light ion irradiation, showed the possibility of reducing turn-off loss and improving the trade-off relations. Furthermore, the numerical analyses showed relations between the location of the irradiated point and variations of the internal carrier distributions. © 1997 Scripta Technica, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn 119(1): 82–89.