Recent progress in SiC bipolar junction transistors

Bipolar junction transistors (BJT) and integrated Darlington pairs have been developed in 4H-SiC. The 3 mm x 3 mm BJTs show an on-state current of 20 A at a forward drop of 1.2 V at room temperature. The smaller 2 mm x 2 mm devices were tested up to 325 /spl deg/C. The on-resistance increases and the current gain reduces with increasing temperature. The reverse leakage current was measured to be less than 40 muA at 1000 V and 325 /spl deg/C. Inductive switching at 1000 V, 5 A shows extremely fast turn-on and turn-off behavior.