Technology of Proton Irradiation for Performance Improvement of Power Thyristors and Diodes
By
Vladimir Gubarev
Alexander Semenov/ "Proton-Electrotex", General Director
Valery Stolbunov
Alexey Surma/ "Proton-Electrotex",Head of Resea総監督rch and Development Center
Control of recombination features in the layers of the semiconductor element is considered to be one of the most effective methods to increase performance and many other characteristics of power semiconductor devices (PSD). Some aspects of such technologies based on the accelerated proton irradiation of the silicon elements are described in the article.
Automatically controlled operation line for proton irradiation of PSD is being described, which helps selectively introduce the recombination centers and implant hydrogen atoms into the silicon element at a depth of up to 1000 µm.
Some characteristics of fast thyristors produced with help of proton irradiation technology are listed here. The semiconductors have remarkably small turn-off time, small recovered charge and peak reverse recovery current.
Implanting hydrogen atoms during proton irradiation helps to build local hidden n'-layers with low specific resistance inside the n-layer of the semiconductor element. Possibilities of using such hidden layers to produce power diode-thyristors (dynistors) and semiconductor voltage suppressors with increased power capacity are described as well.
