Design and technology of high-power silicon devices

Power semiconductors are playing a leading role in the power electronics systems, because they are enablers for new technical solutions with higher performance and efficiency. The most important concepts of today's high-power devices are Phase Controlled Thyristor (PCT), Integrated Gate Commutated Thyristor (IGCT), Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT), and PiN diode. Silicon-based devices are still taking evolutionary steps to gradually increase the current and voltage ratings by utilizing the technologies well established in the IC industry. They allow us to efficiently produce large area devices (nowadays up to 6″) rated up to the order of kAs. Their structures have nowadays the thickness up to ≈1500 µm which allows the blocking voltages up to 10 kV. Beside the well-established Si technologies, the low-power devices are increasingly utilizing the technologies of SiC and GaN. They are already on the market and in rapidly increasing volumes, but they still occupy only certain areas with relatively lower line voltages and output currents, where increased cost is balanced out by increased application demands. As a result, the world of high-power devices is still dominated by the silicon. In this paper, recent advances and current trends in the technology of Si high-power devices are discussed using some representative examples.