Experimental and numerical study of the emitter turn-off thyristor(ETO)

摘要

The emitter turn-off thyristor (ETO) is a new family of high powernsemiconductor devices that is suitable for megawatt power electronicsnapplication. ETOs with voltage and current ratings of 4-6 kV and 1-4 kA,nhave been developed and demonstrated. And those power levels are thenhighest in silicon power devices and are comparable to those of the gatenturn-off thyristor (GTO). Compared to the conventional GTO, the ETO hasnmuch shorter storage time, voltage controlled turn-off capability, andnmuch larger reverse biased safe operation area (RBSOA). Furthermore,nETOs have a forward-biased safe operation area (FBSOA) that enables itnto control the turn-on di/dt similar to an insulated gate bipolarntransistor (IGBT). These combined advantages make the ETO based powernsystem simpler in terms of dv/dt snubber, di/dt snubber, overcurrentnprotection, resulting in significant savings in the system cost. Thisnpaper presents experimental and numerical results that demonstrate thenadvantages of the ETO