Simulation Study on the Performance of SiC-GTO

Recent development in power electronics has made power semiconductor devices larger and more complicated, and device simulation is necessary to predict their characteristics. From the fundamental equations of semiconductor devices, potential distribution and carrier concentrations can be solved using the finite element method (FEM) [1]. Silicon carbide (SiC) material has been utilized for power devices, in order to achieve fast switching time and low switching loss. In this study, we use our FEM device simulator and compare the switching waveforms of usual silicon gate turn off thyristor (Si-GTO) and new SiC-GTO. Results show that turn off time of SiC-GTO is decreased extremely. The merits of devices simulation are not only to predict switching characteristics but also to observe inner phenomena of semiconductor device [2]. In this study, we also analyzed and compared the inner distributions including inner potential, hole density and electron density at certain time points during the switching operation of Si- GTO and SiC-GTO. Result show that the changing of inner distributions are faster in the case of new SiC-GTO than in that of usual Si- GTO.