ESTD: an emitter switched thyristor with a diverter

In this paper we report a 600 V Emitter Switched Thyristor with a Diverter (ESTD) that incorporates a p-channel diverter adjacent to the floating emitter to improve the turn-off capability of the conventional Emitter Switched Thyristor (EST). The current saturation feature of the EST is retained in this new device. Experimental devices show a 27-50% improvement in maximum gate controllable current over the conventional EST for resistive switching, with a small penalty in forward drop.<>