Design and fabrication of breakover diode with improved parameter control

In this work, a novel breakover diode (BOD) design has been proposed and developed allowing the generation of a range of triggering voltages (20-300 V) independent of the starting material's resistivity, through modification of a single process step. Moreover, absolute control over the triggering (forward blocking) voltage (V/sub BF/) has been improved to approximately /spl plusmn/1.5%. In addition, the dependence of other critical device parameters, such as the breakover voltage (V/sub BO/), breakover current (I/sub BO/) and holding current (I/sub h/), on the forward blocking voltage has been virtually eliminated.