United Silicon Carbide, Inc.

Xueqing Li

Anup Bhalla

Leonid Fursin

Hao Zhang

A high-voltage switch module, such as a cascode module, includes an electrically insulating heatsink with a patterned conductor layer on which high-voltage and low-voltage active semiconductor components are bonded, along with clamping, loading, and dynamic balancing components such as diodes, resistors, and capacitors. The heatsink may be alumina or aluminum nitride, for example. The conductor layer may be copper affixed to the heatsink via by direct-copper bonding or active metal brazing, for instance. High-voltage cascode modules may be formed using a low-voltage MOSFET in combination with a chain of silicon carbide normally-on n-channel JFET devices with a variety of configurations of clamping, loading, and balancing devices, for example.

High voltage switch module

A high-voltage switching device is formed by: connecting a number of normally-on transistors, such as JFETs, in series with each other, where the drain of each transistor is connected to the source of the next; connecting the chain of normally-on transistors in series with a normally-off switch component, such as a MOSFET, where the drain of the normally-off switch component is connected to the source of the first transistor in the chain in the chain; and, for each transistor, connecting a voltage-clamping device, such as a diode, with the anode of the voltage-clamping device connected to the source of the transistor and the cathode of the voltage-clamping device connected to the gate of the next transistor in the chain.

High voltage switch

Disclosed herein are cascode switching circuits that include a normally-on semiconductor device, a normally-off semiconductor device, and a gate driver. The normally-on semiconductor device and said normally-off semiconductor device each has a gate terminal, a drain terminal and a source terminal. The gate driver has a first output and a second output, the first output of said gate driver is coupled to said gate terminal of said normally-on semiconductor device, the second output of said gate driver is coupled to said gate terminal of said normally-off semiconductor device, and the drain terminal of said normally-off semiconductor device is coupled to said source terminal of said normally-on semiconductor device so that a current path is formed through said normally-on semiconductor device and said normally-off semiconductor device. Methods of making and using such circuits, and other various aspects of such circuits are also disclosed.

Cascode switching circuit

The present invention provides AccuFETs with single or dual accumulation channels and methods for manufacturing the same. The present invention also provides for products produced by the methods of the present invention and for apparatuses used to perform the methods of the present invention.

Trenched and implanted accumulation mode metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor

A solid-state disconnect device capable of isolating and protecting circuits and equipment from overloads and undesired transients is presented. The protection device includes at least one depletion mode circuit block having three terminals (drain, gate, and source), which in its simplest form is implemented by a single n-channel depletion mode field-effect transistor, and two enhancement mode circuit blocks each having three terminals (drain, gate and source), each implemented in simplest form by a single n-channel enhancement mode field-effect transistor. The current conducting path of the first enhancement mode circuit block is connected in series with the current conducting path of the depletion mode circuit block. The drain terminal of the second enhancement mode circuit block is connected through a current limiting load to both the gate terminal of the second enhancement mode circuit block and the drain terminal of the first enhancement mode circuit block. The gate terminal of the first enhancement mode circuit block is connected to the drain terminal of the second enhancement mode circuit block. The source terminals of the two enhancement circuit blocks are both connected to the gate terminal of the depletion mode circuit block. Unidirectional and bidirectional embodiments are disclosed.

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East Brunswick, NJ, United States of America

Xueqing Li