High-frequency 6000 V double-gate GTO's

A double-gate gate turn off (GTO) thyristor, which has an additional gate on the n-base layer, has been proposed to realize high-frequency operation for high-power inverters. The double-gate structure has further been combined with an n-buffer structure to realize narrow n-base width. A forward-blocking voltage of 6000 V was obtained, even at 150 degrees C, when the second gate was shorted to the anode electrode. In order to reduce turn-on and turn-off switching losses, the dependence of these losses on a time interval between two gate triggering pulses has been investigated. It was found that the turn-off loss of approximately 1/20th of that for a conventional GTO thyristor was achieved by adjusting the time interval between the two gate triggering pulses.<
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