UIC-2011-037 – Photonically-Activated, Single-Bias, Fast-Switching, Integrated Thyristor

A common characteristic of thyristor architectures is the requirement of more than one bias voltage to control the power flow. A voltage bias is applied across the anode and cathode terminals for power flow. The other voltage bias is applied at the thyristor gate and at other auxiliary switches. By requiring more than one bias voltage for operation, the system complexity is greatly increased, more power is consumed, and reliability is reduced. UIC researchers have developed an optically-activated integrated thyristor, which requires only one electrical power bias. The thyristor is fast-switching and can be activated / deactivated by toggling one optical source or multiple optical sources. The thyristor may be configured such that the optical sources have the same wavelength or varying wavelengths. Furthermore, the integrated thyristor architecture supports the use of optical sources which have the same intensity or varying intensities. Mark Krivchenia krivchen@otm.uic.edu (312) 996-6626