Optimizing carrier lifetime profile for improved trade-off between turn-off time and forward drop

The trade-off between forward voltage drop and device turn-off time can be significantly altered by the proper location of a narrow region of lower lifetime, oriented perpendicular to the current flow. The proposed structure is discussed and calculations are presented to illustrate this alteration. In addition, differences in thyristor turnoff and diode turn-off in an inductive circuit and when driven by a perfect voltage source are investigated. Portions of this investigation were reported at the 1979 and 1980 PESC Conferences.