An electronic device can include a bidirectional HEMT. In an aspect, a packaged electronic device can include the bidirectional HEMT can be part of a die having a die substrate connection that is configured to be at a fixed voltage, electrically connected to drain/source or source/drain depending on current flow through the bidirectional HEMT, or electrically float. In another aspect, the electronic device can include Kelvin connections on both the drain/source and source/drain side of the circuit. In a further embodiment, a circuit can include the bidirectional HEMT, switch transistors, and diodes with breakdown voltages to limit voltage swings at the drain/source and source/drain of the switch transistors.

The present application teaches, inter alia, methods and circuits for operating B-TRANs (double-base bidirectional bipolar junction transistors). Base drive circuits provide high-impedance drive to the base contact region on whichever side of the device is (instantaneously) operating as the collector. (B-TRANs, unlike other bipolar junction transistors, are controlled by applied voltage, not applied current.) Control signals operate preferred drive circuits, providing diode-mode turn-on and pre-turnoff operation, and a hard ON state with a low voltage drop (the transistor-ON state). In some (not necessarily all) preferred embodiments, a self-synchronizing rectifier circuit provides an adjustable low voltage for the gate drive circuit. Also, in some preferred embodiments, the base drive voltage used to drive the c-base region (on the collector side) is varied while monitoring the base current at that terminal, so that no more base current than necessary is applied. This solves the difficult challenge of optimizing base drive in B-TRANs.

The present application teaches, among other innovations, methods and circuits for operating a B-TRAN (double-base bidirectional bipolar junction transistor). A base drive circuit is described which provides high-impedance drive to the base contact region on whichever side of the device is operating as the collector (at a given moment). (The B-TRAN, unlike other bipolar junction transistors, is controlled by applied voltage rather than applied current.) The preferred implementation of the drive circuit is operated by control signals to provide diode-mode turn-on and pre-turnoff operation, as well as a hard ON state with a low voltage drop (the transistor-ON state). In some but not necessarily all preferred embodiments, an adjustable low voltage for the gate drive circuit is provided by a self-synchronizing rectifier circuit. Also, in some but not necessarily all preferred embodiments, the base drive voltage used to drive the c-base region (on the collector side) is varied while the base current at that terminal is monitored, so that no more base current than necessary is applied. This solves the difficult challenge of optimizing base drive in a B-TRAN.

An integrated circuit and method with a bidirectional ESD transistor. A base diffusion separates an emitter diffusion and a collector diffusion. Silicide is blocked from the base diffusion, the emitter-base junction, the collector-base junction, and from equal portions of the emitter diffusion and the collector diffusions.

In an embodiment, a switch circuit includes a bidirectional switch including a first input/output node, a second input/output node, a first diode and a second diode. The first diode and the second diode are coupled anti-serially between the first input/output node and the second input/output node.

Methods and systems for operating a double-base bidirectional power bipolar transistor. Two timing phases are used to transition into turn-off: one where each base is shorted to its nearest emitter/collector region, and a second one where negative drive is applied to the emitter-side base to reduce the minority carrier population in the bulk substrate. A diode prevents reverse turn-on while negative base drive is being applied.

The present application provides (in addition to more broadly applicable inventions) improvements which are particularly applicable to two-sided power semiconductor devices which use bipolar conduction. In this class of devices, the inventor has realized that two or three of the four (or more) semiconductor doping components which form the carrier-emission structures and control structures in the active device (array) portion of a two-sided power device can also be used, with surprising advantages, to form field-limiting rings around the active arrays on both surfaces. Most preferably, in some but not necessarily all embodiments, a shallow implant of one conductivity type is used to counterdope the surface of a well having the other conductivity type. This shallow implant, singly or in combination with another shallow implant of the same conductivity type, works to shield the well from the effects of excess charge at or above the surface of the semiconductor material.

A bidirectional Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (MOS) device, including a P-type substrate, and an active region. The active region includes a drift region, a first MOS structure and a second MOS structure; the first MOS structure includes a first P-type body region, a first P+ contact region, a first N+ source region, a first metal electrode, and a first gate structure; the second MOS structure includes a second P-type body region, a second P+ contact region, a second N+ source region, a second metal electrode, and a second gate structure; and the drift region includes a dielectric slot, a first N-type layer, a second N-type layer, and an N-type region. The active region is disposed on the upper surface of the P-type substrate. The first MOS structure and the second MOS structure are symmetrically disposed on two ends of the upper layer of the drift region.

A vertical power component includes a silicon substrate of a first conductivity type with a well of the second conductivity type on a lower surface of the substrate. The first well is bordered at a component periphery with an insulating porous silicon ring. An upper surface of the porous silicon ring is only in contact with the substrate of the first conductivity type. The insulating porous silicon ring penetrates into the substrate down to a depth greater than a thickness of the well. The porous silicon ring is produced by forming a doped well in a first surface of a doped substrate, placing that first surface of the substrate into an electrolytic bath, and circulating a current between an opposite second surface of the substrate and the electrolytic bath.

A symmetrically-bidirectional bipolar transistor circuit where the two base contact regions are clamped, through a low-voltage diode and a resistive element, to avoid bringing either emitter junction to forward bias. This avoids bipolar gain in the off state, and thereby avoids reduction of the withstand voltage due to bipolar gain.