High-Current Low-Voltage Switches for Nanosecond Pulse Durations Based on Thyristor (Al)GaAs/GaAs Homo- and Heterostructures

• Published in: Semiconductors (Woodbury, N.Y.) N.Y.), 2024-03, Vol.58 (3), p.267-272
• Main Authors: Slipchenko, S. O., Podoskin, A. A., Shushkanov, I. V., Krychkov, V. A., Rizaev, A. E., Kondratov, M. I., Grishin, A. E., Pikhtin, N. A., Bagaev, T. A., Svetogorov, V. N., Ladugin, M. A., Marmalyuk, A. A., Simakov, V. A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Delay time; Electric potential; Emitters; Gallium arsenide; Heterostructures; Magnetic Materials; Magnetism; Nanosecond pulses; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Pulse duration; Switches; Thyristors; Voltage
• ISSN: 1063-7826; 1090-6479
• DOI: 10.1134/S106378262403014X

A series of low-voltage thyristor current switches based on (Al)GaAs/GaAs homo- and heterostructures with a volume charge region formed in the lightly doped p -GaAs base layer have been developed. The transient processes characteristics in pulse generation mode of nanosecond duration have been studied. It has been shown that the use of a wide-bandgap barrier based on AlGaAs at the n ‑emitter/ p -base junction allows reducing the minimum control current amplitude from 30 to 3 mA, and the turn-on delay time can be shortened to 6 ns. For the developed thyristor switches, a minimum transition time of 3.7–3.9 ns was demonstrated when operating in a circuit with a 1 nF capacitive load. In a circuit with a nominal 1 Ω resistive load, the thyristor switches provided a peak current of 17.5 A with a pulse duration of 3.7 ns.