High-Voltage Diffused Step Recovery Diodes: I. Numerical Simulation

Аннотация

The operation of diffused step recovery diodes (dSRDs) as current interrupters in high-power nanosecond pulse generators is studied in detail for the first time by numerical computer simulation. One of the necessary conditions for minimizing the loss in dSRDs is specified. The dependences of the prepulse voltage, front duration, amplitude and duration of the pulse formed on a resistive load, and the switching-loss energy in a dSRD on the device area and break current density are obtained. It is shown that the simulation results can be described by simple analytical formulas obtained in the second part of the work with an error of 10–20% if the pulse amplitude does not exceed the dSRD avalanche breakdown voltage. A generalized figure of merit of dSRDs is proposed, which can be used to optimize the dSRD parameters and operation mode and compare the efficiency of current interrupters of different types.