Gate turn-off thyristor

US4195306A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Licentia Patent-Verwaltungs-GmbH · DE

Inventors

• Marius Fullmann · Neu-Isenburg, DE
• Friedhelm Sawitzki · Frankfurt am Main, DE
• Dieter Silber · Eschborn, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Aug 4, 1976
• Grant date: Mar 25, 1980
• Expiry date: Aug 4, 1996

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H02M1/06
• WIPO field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A gate turn-off thyristor device including a gate turn-off main thyristor and a gate turn-off auxiliary thyristor, each having an emitter, a control base, a main base and a counter-emitter, integrated in a semiconductor body including three zones of alternatingly opposite conductivity type. The three zones of the semiconductor body are each divided into two regions to provide the counter-emitter, main base and control base zones of the two thyristors, while the emitter zones of the main thyristor and of the auxiliary thyristor are separate zones formed in the respective associated regions constituting the control base zones of the respective thyristors. The two counter-emitter zones of the two thyristors are commonly contacted, and the two regions of at least one of the zones of the semiconductor body are doped differently so that the turn-off gain of the main thyristor is greater than the turn-off gain of the auxiliary thyristor and the holding current of the auxiliary thyristor is smaller than the holding current of the main thyristor.