Experimental and numerical study of the emitter turn-off thyristor (ETO)
The emitter turn-off thyristor (ETO) is a new family of high power semiconductor devices that is suitable for megawatt power electronics application. ETO's with voltage and current ratings of 4--6 kV and 1--4 kA, have been developed and demonstrated. And those power levels are the highest in silicon power devices and are comparable to those of the gate turn-off thyristor (GTO). Compared to the conventional GTO, the ETO has much shorter storage time, voltage controlled turn-off capability, and much larger reverse biased safe operation area (RBSOA). Furthermore, ETO's have a forward-biased safe operation area (FBSOA) that enables it to control the turn-on di/dt similar to an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT). These combined advantages make the ETO based power system simpler in terms of dv/dt snubber, di/dt snubber, over current protection, resulting in significant savings in the system cost. This paper presents experimental and numerical results that demonstrate the advantages of the ETO.
- Research Organization:
- Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ., Blacksburg, VA (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Sandia National Laboratories; Office of Naval Research; National Science Foundation
- OSTI ID:
- 20080334
- Journal Information:
- IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), Journal Name: IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 15; ISSN ITPEE8; ISSN 0885-8993
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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