The dV/dt capability of MOS-gated thyristors

In this paper, a detailed study of the dV/dt capability of MOS-gated thyristors is performed. It is shown that in addition to the conventional mode of dV/dt-induced turn-on in thyristors, termed the intrinsic mode, there exists another distinct mode of dV/dt-induced turn-on, peculiar to the MOS-gated thyristor structure, which the authors term the extrinsic dV/dt mode. The effective dV/dt capability is determined by both modes and is degraded by the presence of an external gate-cathode resistance and parasitic gate-anode capacitance. The existence of these two modes of dV/dt-induced turn-on is demonstrated experimentally, and the effect of device parameters on the dV/dt capability is studied.