Manipulating Static Characteristics of Reverse Blocking IGCTs via Local Lifetime Control

The reverse blocking integrated gate-commutated thyristor (RB-IGCT) is a promising candidate for high-power applications due to its low loss and high reliability. However, the nonpunchthrough structure of RB-IGCT leads to a strong tradeoff between reducing leakage current and reducingon-state voltage in its design, limiting further performance optimization. This article proposes a local lifetime control (LLC) strategy to manipulate these two static characteristics of RB-IGCTs. By introducing defects with varying depths and concentrations, the carrier lifetime can be spatially controlled, thereby enabling desired modulation of device characteristics. An optimal defect position near the junction is identified to simultaneously suppress emitter efficiency and base transport factor, achieving a lower leakage current with negligible impact on theon-state voltage. Furthermore, the effect of defect concentration is evaluated using the maximum DCon-state current as the primary metric, revealing a nonmonotonic relationship with a well-defined optimum. Experimental validation through proton irradiation confirms that a fluence of$4\times 10^{{9}}$cm${}^{-{2}}$at$4\sim 5$MeV achieves a favorable balance between leakage current andon-state voltage.