On-board optical triggering of solid-state thyristors (patent pending) holds the promise of semiconductor switches having very high current, high charge transfer, and very high current rate of rise (di/dt). Advances in semiconductor lasers make possible low-cost, on-board gating of silicon devices. However, switch devices made of wide bandgap material require greater photon energy. The proposed work will identify photon sources for on-board gating of SiC and diamond based switches. Recent developments in blue-violet semiconductor lasers and high pressure flashlamp sources will be investigated. Photon source coupling, gate driver, and photon transport will be addressed. The Phase I effort includes a demonstration of on-board optical-gating techniques in a silicon thyristor and the identification of experiments with wide bandgap devices that will be performed in Phase II. The successful demonstration of on-board optical gating techniques for wide bandgapbased devices will enable the development of high-temperature-capture switches having superior forward blocking voltage, charge transfer, and current rate-of-rise characteristics for individual and stacked devices. Such a switch will have widespread severe service power conditioning and power conversion applications including military and commercial electric and electric-hybrid vehicles, directed energy systems, pulsed power supplies, and modulators for lasers, pulsed light sources, microwave sources, and charged particle accelerators.
Keywords: Power Electronic Switches, Optically Gated Thyristor, High Voltage Switch, Wide-Bandgap Semiconduct
