Si power devices: Present status and future outlook

Abstract

Silicon (Si) power devices are used as the power semiconductors for power conversion systems and are widely applied to power electronics for energy creation, energy saving and reducing CO₂ emissions. Currently, the performance development of Si devices is coming close to being saturated due to the limits of the material. However, many kinds of developments such as a new device structure for a Super Junction (SJ) MOSFET, an RB-IGBT device for a new circuit topology and an HV-IC for a drive circuit have been breaking through the performance limits. This paper introduces a general outline of Si power devices, and SJ and RB-IGBT devices, as the latest Si devices, and a power IC that is necessary for the control of these power devices.