Displacement Damage Effects of Pulse Discharge Circuit Switched by Anode-Short MOS-Controlled Thyristor.

The anode-short metal–oxide–silicon (MOS)-controlled thyristor (AS-MCT) is the latest generation of MCT. Due to its MOS gating, high-current-rise rate, normally-OFF, and high blocking capabilities, the AS-MCT is an ideal switch for pulse discharge application. Previously, we show that the static behaviors of AS-MCT are susceptible to displacement damage (DD) as it contains bipolar structures. As a continuation of our previous work, this article reports the experimental results for the degradation of pulse discharge circuit (PDC) characteristics induced by the DD of its XND1 AS-MCT switch following fast neutron exposure up to $7.8\times {10}^{13}\,\,{\text {cm}}^{-2}$. Both the charging time and the peak surge current of the PDC decrease significantly once the neutron flux surpasses a critical value, $\sim {10}^{12}\,\,{\text {cm}}^{-2}$. From device and circuit physics perspectives, an analytical model based on equivalent leakage current resistance is proposed to describe the degradation of the two parameters, and then, this article suggests the mechanisms behind such degradations from the neutron exposure of AS-MCT switch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]