Experimentally Demonstrating Fast Neutron Irradiation Effect on High-di/dt Switching Characteristics of Insulated Gate Triggered Thyristor for Pulse Power

In this work, the fast neutron irradiation effects on high-di/dt switching characteristics of IGTT is demonstrated and investigated by experiments and TCAD simulations. Experimental measurements show that the breakdown voltage of IGTT slightly increases, but the leakage current exhibits tens time incensement after neutron flux of 3.0×10
¹³
n/cm
²
. As for the pulse switching performances, more than 40% decline range of peak current (I
peak
) and di/dt are detected at low operating voltage of 400V. However, at relatively high operating voltage of 1400V, the decline range of I
peak
and di/dt are only ~15%, indicating the fast neutron irradiation has different effect on high-di/dt switching characteristics when the operating voltage changes. Moreover, there is about 300kW power loss of irradiated IGTT increases after neutron flux of 1.0×10
¹⁴
n/cm
²
, causing significant temperature rise (ΔT).