The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 25, 1990
Filed:
Mar. 27, 1989
Deva N Pattanayak, Schenectady, NY (US);
Bantval J Baliga, Raleigh, NC (US);
General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY (US);
Abstract
A MOS-pilot structure for an IGT device consisting of a multiplicity of IGT cells interconnected in a lattice network includes a plurality of pilot emitter electrodes each in electrical contact with only at least one pilot emitter region of a first plurality of the multiplicity of IGT cells and electrically isolated from a common cathode electrode of the multiplicity of IGT cells. The plurality of pilot emitter electrodes are each electrically connected to a contact metal strip deposited on the substrate surface and spaced therefrom by a layer of insulation. The contact metal strip is connected to ground potential through a sense resistor for producing a sense voltage responsive only to the channel currents flowing through the at least one pilot emitter regions; therefore, a MOS pilot structure that utilizes only the MOS channel current to produce the sense voltage to cause turn-off of the IGT device at a large total current is disclosed. The MOS-pilot structure does not suffer from the avalanche breakdown problems during turn-off, that are associated with other prior art IGT pilot structures.