A field terminated diode

• Published in: IEEE transactions on electron devices Vol. 23; no. 8; pp. 905 - 911
• Main Authors: Houston, D.E., Krishna, S., Piccone, D.E., Finke, R.J., Sun, Y.S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01-08-1976
• ISSN: 0018-9383; 1557-9646
• DOI: 10.1109/T-ED.1976.18507

The field terminated diode (FTD) is a new medium power switching element which meets the important criteria of a switching thyristor: fast switching and low conduction losses. Two types of devices are described, the FTD itself, which is used in commutated turn off applications, and a gate turn off variation of the FTD called the field controlled thyristor (FCT). These are three terminal devices, and forward blocking is achieved by applying a reverse bias to the grid with respect to the cathode; reverse blocking is accomplished at the anode junction. Both devices are described, and their performance is compared to that of transistors and conventional switching thyristors.