Effects of Magnetic Field on the Carrier-Density Distribution of Semiconductor Power Device Operated in Pulsed Power Conditions

Abstract

Turn-on characteristics of semiconductor power devices are evaluated under external magnetic field to study the effects of external magnetic field generated in a pulsed power circuit.Two pin diodes that have a basic structure of power devices are connected in parallel and driven by a pulsed voltage source.It was found the magnetic field applied to one diode in the perpendicular direction of current-flow changed the current balance between the diodes.Besides the on-resistance of a diode was increased under external magnetic field.The carrier-density distribution inside of the diodes was measured by using a free carrier absorption method.The data show that the carrier-density distribution changes from nearly the uniform one to the one-sided one.It can be concluded that the effects of magnetic-field have to be considered for the evaluation of switching characteristic in pulsed power operations.