A Snapback Suppressed Reverse-Conducting IGBT With a Floating p-Region in Trench Collector

A novel reverse-conducting insulated-gate bipolar transistor (RC-IGBT) featuring an oxide trench placed between the n-collector and the p-collector and a floating p-region (p-float) sandwiched between the n-drift and n-collector is proposed. First, the new structure introduces a high-resistance collector short resistor at low current density, which leads to the suppression of the snapback effect. Second, the collector short resistance can be adjusted by varying the p-float length without increasing the collector cell length. Third, the p-float layer also acts as the base of the n-collector/p-float/n-drift transistor which can be activated and offers a low-resistance current path at high current densities, which contributes to the low ON-state voltage of the integrated freewheeling diode and the fast turnoff. As simulations show, the proposed RC-IGBT shows snapback-free output characteristics and faster turnoff compared with the conventional RC-IGBT.