Devices for power electronics

Transistors for switching applications

Fabrizio Bonani

Dipartimento di Elettronica
Politecnico di Torino

High speed electron devices Devices for power electronics

Contents

1 Introduction
Switches in power electronics
Quality figures
Breakdown

2 Power transistors
Power MOSFET
Power bipolar transistors
Insulated gate bipolar transistor

High speed electron devices Devices for power electronics

Switches in power circuits

Many circuits for power electronics use switches

 example: switching power supply
Switches are classified in several ways
 as a function of switching control
I passive (diode)
I active (transistor)
 as a function of conduction current direction
I single-quadrant (diode, BJT, IGBT)
I two-quadrant (MOSFET)
 as a function of the blocked voltage sign when open
I positive or negative blocking voltage (single device switch)
I voltage blocking irrespective of voltage sign (multiple device
switch)

High speed electron devices Devices for power electronics

Examples of single device switches

Passive Active
i
control
v i
short
i
open
i short i
v
open
v control
v
v Single quadrant

i i
short
control
v open

v
Current
bi-directional
two quadrant

High speed electron devices Devices for power electronics

Switch quality figures

From an application standpoint, switch quality is defined by

 switching time delay between the two states
 maximum blocking voltage (breakdown voltage)
 conduction voltage drop (Ron )
Unipolar devices (Schottky diode, MOSFET) maximize
switching speed
Bipolar devices (BJT, IGBT) exhibit large breakdown
voltage and low Ron

High speed electron devices Devices for power electronics

Avalanche breakdown

In power devices, blocking capability is limited by the

breakdown voltage
In presence of a strong electric field, free carriers gain
energy leading to
 free carrier generation because of impact ionization
 device breakdown because of avalanche effect (normally
the dominating mechanism)
For each material, the minimum electric field leading to
breakdown is called dielectric strength
In a device, breakdown voltage depends on
 material (impact ionization)
 device topology, influencing the peak value of the electric
field (boundary effects, terminations etc.)

High speed electron devices Devices for power electronics

Termination examples

n SiC Schottky diode

Metal Oxide

Electric Field (V/cm)

2.2e+06
1.92e+06
1.65e+06
1.38e+06
1.1e+06
8.25e+05
5.5e+05
2.75e+05
0

Field plate Field plate + Field plate + trench

p+ guard ring and p+ guard ring

High speed electron devices Devices for power electronics

pn and pin junctions

The presence of an intrinsic region allows for

 maximum electric field reduction (at the same applied
voltage) increasing the blocking voltage
 high resistivity region introduction increasing Ron

ρ ρ

- -

High speed electron devices Devices for power electronics

Contents

1 Introduction
Switches in power electronics
Quality figures
Breakdown

2 Power transistors
Power MOSFET
Power bipolar transistors
Insulated gate bipolar transistor

High speed electron devices Devices for power electronics

Double-diffusion MOSFET

Power MOSFETs (LG ≈ 1 µm) exhibit several peculiarities

 vertical conduction of drain current
 periodic structure to increase the drain current (when in
conduction)
 presence of the body diode requiring VDS > 0, unless
special circuit solutions are used (for two-quadrant
switches)
Source Source
Gate Oxide Gate Oxide

n n n n n n n n
p p p p
body diode
- -
n n
n n

Drain Drain

High speed electron devices Devices for power electronics

Off state

Off state
If VGS is sub-threshold: Source
Gate Oxide
 the conductive channel is not
formed
n n n n
 the body diode is reverse p p
biased (VDS > 0) Depleted region
 the lightly doped n− region -
n
increases the breakdown n
voltage
Drain

Because of the body diode, the device cannot block a

voltage VDS < 0

High speed electron devices Devices for power electronics

On state

On state
If VGS is larger that threshold: Source
Gate Oxide
 the conductive channel is
formed
 the body diode is reverse n p n n p n

biased (VDS > 0)

 the drain current flows through Channel

the lightly doped n− region n

-

n
(Ron ), the channel is the n
region under the source contact Drain

The presence of many channels in parallel allows to obtain

a large drain current

High speed electron devices Devices for power electronics

Static transcharacteristic

ID, A VDS=10 V
VDS=200 V
If VGS is sub-threshold, the 10
transistor is off VDS=2 V

 threshold is around 3 V On state

If VGS is above threshold, the 5
VDS=1 V
transistor is on
Off state
 normally VGS ≈ 12 ÷ 15 V, to VDS=0,5 V

minimize VDS 0
0 5 10 15
VGS, V

High speed electron devices Devices for power electronics

Vertical BJT
Base Emitter

Current flux in conduction is n

p
n n

vertical n-

Parallelizable structure to
n
increase the conduction current
Collector

In the off state (both junctions reverse biased), the lightly

doped n− collector region increases the blocking voltage
in the on state (both junctions forward biased), hole
injection from the base into the n− region reduces its
resistivity, improving Ron
The switch-off transient (on→off) is limited by minority
carriers recombination

High speed electron devices Devices for power electronics

Insulated gate bipolar transistor
Emitter
Gate Oxide

n n n n
Structure similar to DMOSFET, p p

the only difference is the p layer

constituting the collector terminal n-
p
 vertical current conduction
 parallelizable structure to Collector

increase the conduction current

Beware of terminology! Collector
i
 the IGBT collector is the pnp Collector
i
BJT emitter, and viceversa
Gate
v Gate v
Emitter

Emitter

High speed electron devices Devices for power electronics

IGBT pros/cons

When in the on state, the collector pn− junction of the

IGBT is in forward bias
 holes injected in the n− region reduce Ron
The switch-off (on→off) velocity is limited by minority
carriers recombination
 slower device with respect to DMOSFET
The control exerted by a MOS system gate reduces the
input current (capacitive load)

High speed electron devices Devices for power electronics