Common Power Semiconductor Devices
A power device may be classified as one of the following main categories (see figure 1):
- A two-terminal device (e.g., a diode), whose state is completely dependent on the external power circuit to which it is connected.
- A three-terminal device (e.g., a triode), whose state is dependent on not only its external power circuit, but also the signal on its driving terminal (this terminal is known as the gate or base).
Another classification is less obvious, but has a strong influence on device performance:
- A majority carrier device (e.g., a Schottky diode, a MOSFET, etc.); this uses only one type of charge carriers.
- A minority carrier device (e.g., a thyristor, a bipolar transistor, an IGBT, etc.); this uses both majority and minority carriers (i.e., electrons and electron holes).
A majority carrier device is faster, but the charge injection of minority carrier devices allows for better on-state performance.
Read more about this topic: Power Semiconductor Device
Famous quotes containing the words common, power and/or devices:
“I confess my belief in the common man.... The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.... The man who is in the melee knows what blows are being struck and what blood is being drawn.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“I have no concern with any economic criticisms of the communist system; I cannot enquire into whether the abolition of private property is expedient or advantageous. But I am able to recognize that the psychological premises on which the system is based are an untenable illusion. In abolishing private property we deprive the human love of aggression of one of its instruments ... but we have in no way altered the differences in power and influence which are misused by aggressiveness.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
“There is nothing in machinery, there is nothing in embankments and railways and iron bridges and engineering devices to oblige them to be ugly. Ugliness is the measure of imperfection.”
—H.G. (Herbert George)