High voltage tolerant electrical overstress protection with low leakage current and low capacitance is provided. In one embodiment, a semiconductor die includes a signal pad, an internal circuit electrically connected to the signal pad, a power clamp electrically connected to an isolated node, and one or more isolation blocking voltage devices electrically connected between the signal pad and the isolated node. The one or more isolation blocking voltage devices are operable to isolate the signal pad from a capacitance of the power clamp. In another embodiment, a semiconductor die includes a signal pad, a ground pad, a high voltage/high speed internal circuit electrically connected to the signal pad, and a first thyristor and a second thyristor between the signal pad and the ground pad.

A lateral semiconductor controlled rectifier (SCR) includes a pwell and an nwell A plurality of p+ contact regions connect to the pwell and are spaced apart from one another by a dielectric material along a width of the pwell. There are a plurality of n+ contact regions connect to the nwell and are spaced apart from one another by dielectric material along a width of the nwell.

Trenches having a gate oxide layer are formed in the surface of a silicon wafer for vertical gates. Conductive doped polysilicon is then deposited in the trenches to form a relatively thin layer of doped polysilicon along the sidewalls. Thus, there is a central cavity surrounded by polysilicon. Next, the cavity is filled in with a much higher conductivity material, such as aluminum, copper, a metal silicide, or other conductor to greatly reduce the overall resistivity of the trenched gates. The thin polysilicon forms an excellent barrier to protect the gate oxide from diffusion from the inner conductor atoms. The inner conductor and the polysilicon conduct the gate voltage in parallel to lower the resistance of the gates, which increases the switching speed of the device. In another embodiment, a metal silicide is used as the first layer, and a metal fills the cavity.

A bypass thyristor device includes a semiconductor device providing a thyristor with a cathode electrode on a cathode side, a gate electrode on the cathode side surrounded by the cathode electrode and an anode electrode on an anode side; an electrically conducting cover element arranged on the cathode side and in electrical contact with the cathode electrode on a contact side; and a gate contact element electrically connected to the gate electrode and arranged in a gate contact opening in the contact side of the cover element; wherein the cover element has a gas expansion volume in the contact side facing the cathode side, which gas expansion volume is interconnected with the gate contact opening for gas exchange.

A gate-turn-off thyristor is provided. The gate-turn-off thyristor includes a plurality of strips formed by repeatedly arranging a plurality of N-type emitter regions with high doping concentration of an upper transistor on an upper surface of an N-type silicon substrate with high resistivity, wherein a periphery of each strip of the plurality of strips is surrounded with a P-type dense base region bus bar of the upper transistor, a cathode metal layer is disposed on an N-type emitter region of the plurality of N-type emitter regions of the upper transistor, and a P-type base region of the upper transistor is disposed below the N-type emitter region of the upper transistor; a side of the P-type base region of the upper transistor is connected to a P-type dense base region of the upper transistor or a P-type dense base region bus bar of the upper transistor.

A lateral insulated gate turn-off device includes an n-drift layer, a p-well formed in the n− drift layer, a shallow n+ type region formed in the well, a shallow p+ type region formed in the well, a cathode electrode shorting the n+ type region to the p+ type region, a trenched first gate extending through the n+ type region and into the well, a p+ type anode region laterally spaced from the well, an anode electrode electrically contacting the p+ type anode region, and a trenched second gate extending from the p+ type anode region into the n-drift layer. For turning the device on, a positive voltage is applied to the first gate the reduce the base width of the npn transistor, and a negative voltage is applied to the second gate to effectively extend the p+ emitter of the pnp transistor further into the n-drift layer to improve performance.

Electrical overstress protection for electronic systems subject to electromagnetic compatibility fault conditions are provided herein. In certain implementations, a stacked thyristor protection structure with a high holding voltage includes a protection device having a trigger voltage and a holding voltage. A trigger voltage of the stacked thyristor protection structure is substantially equal to the trigger voltage of the protection device. The stacked thyristor protection structure further includes at least one resistive thyristor electrically connected to the protection device and operable to increase a holding voltage of the stacked thyristor protection structure relative to the holding voltage of the protection device. The at least one resistive thyristor comprising a PNP bipolar transistor and a NPN bipolar transistor that are cross-coupled, and a conductor connecting a collector of the PNP bipolar transistor to a collector of the NPN bipolar transistor.

A module (100) is specified, the module (100) comprising a first module connection (108), a second module connection (109), an energy store (105), a first electrical switch (101) and a second electrical switch (102), wherein a switchable bypass device (1) is arranged between the first module connection (108) and the second module connection (109) and wherein the switchable bypass device (1) is configured to remain in a bidirectional current conducting state in response to a single trigger pulse.

A power electronic arrangement includes a semiconductor switch structure configured to assume a forward conducting state. A steady-state current carrying capability of the semiconductor switch structure in the forward conducting state is characterized by a nominal current. The semiconductor switch structure is configured to conduct, in the forward conducting state, at least a part of a forward current in a forward current mode of the power electronic arrangement. A diode structure electrically connected in antiparallel to the semiconductor switch structure is configured to conduct at least a part of a reverse current in a reverse mode of the power electronic arrangement. A thyristor structure electrically connected in antiparallel to the semiconductor switch structure has a forward breakover voltage lower than a diode on-state voltage of the diode structure at a critical diode current value, the critical diode current value amounting to at most five times the nominal current.

A short-circuit semiconductor component comprises a semiconductor body, in which a rear-side base region of a first conduction type, an inner region of a second complementary conduction type, and a front-side base region of the first conduction type are disposed. The rear-side base region is electrically connected to a rear-side electrode, and the front-side base region is electrically connected to a front-side electrode. A turn-on structure, which is an emitter structure of the second conduction type, is embedded into the front-side base region and/or rear-side base region and is covered by the respective electrode and is electrically contacted with the electrode placed on the base region respectively embedding it. It can be turned on by a trigger structure which can be activated by an electrical turn-on signal. In the activated state, the trigger structure injects an electrical current surge into the semiconductor body, which irreversibly destroys a semiconductor junction.