Abstract
High-frequency voltage oscillation is occasionally observed in bipolar power semiconductors during a turn-OFF operation. The mechanism of generation of the turn-OFF oscillation is explained by the plasma extraction transit-time (PETT) oscillation theory. According to this theory, a packet of holes propagate through the drift region with constant velocity and induce current flow in the external circuit. The waveform of the corresponding current density is trapezoidal. Negative resistance is generated in the circuit by the current density and RF voltage applied to the semiconductors. The negative resistance is the origin of generation of the turn-OFF oscillation. The author investigates the generation of the IGBT turn-OFF oscillation by performing a 2D device simulation. The simulation results show generation of the negative resistance is different from that described in the PETT oscillation theory. The velocity of the packet of holes depends on the electric field in the drift region and is not constant. The simulated current density oscillates with an almost negative phase compared to the RF voltage oscillation. Further, on the basis of the simulation results, the author will propose the practical method to estimate the oscillation frequency in this paper.
