Power thyristor with mos gated turn-off and mos-assisted turn-on

摘要

The power thyristor (10) of the invention has a cellular emitter structure. Each cell also has a fet assisted turn-on gate integrated into the cell. A turn-on gate voltage of one polarity is applied to a fet gate element (52) that overlies the surface (26) of the cell and to the turn-on gate integrated to the cell. When this voltage is so applied, a channel underlying the fet gate element (52) becomes conductive, which allows the integrated turn-on gate to provide drive to the upper base-upper emitter junction of the thyristor cell thereby turning the thyristor cell (10) on.