Ultra-Fast Solid State Thyratron Replacement John Waldron and Ken Brandmier Silicon Power Corporation 280 Great Valley Pkwy Malvern, PA 19355 [email protected] [email protected] ICOPS, Atlantic City, NJ May 23, 2017 Outline • Overview of Solidtron’s Enabling Technology – Pulse discharge targeted designs • Solidtron Performance – Ultra-fast discharge capabilities – High action capabilities • Solid State Thyratron Replacements (SSTR) – Motivation – Approach – Performance – Experimental results • Summary • Questions ICOPS, Atlantic City, NJ May 23, 2017 2 Super-GTO Vs. GTO SGTO is an IC foundry-fabricated GTO mated with Silicon Power’s proprietary low inductance ThinPak package SGTO Advantages: SGTO Cell structure 3000 x denser 160,000 cells/cm2 Upper transistor >100x improved • Forward drop greatly reduced • Three times lower turn- off switching loss • Turn-on improved by GTO 2 orders of ~ 50 cells /cm2 magnitude Fabricated in 3.3 cm2 die in 6 inch silicon at very high yield, repeatability and uniformity! ICOPS, Atlantic City, NJ May 23, 2017 3 Solidtron Vs. Super-GTO Solidtron follows SGTO strategy, focusing on pulse discharge versus turn-off applications Solidtron Advantages • Emitter area maximized • Internal metal interconnect density improved • Upper transistor gain further improved • Increased cathode bonding pad area 8 inch starting material and improved manufacturing process further improving yield while driving cost down ICOPS, Atlantic City, NJ May 23, 2017 4 Solidtron: The Enabling Technology GTO Versus Solidtron, Fundamental Differences IC Foundry Solidtron Cell ICOPS, Atlantic City, NJ May 23, 2017 5 Solidtron Performance: Ultra-Fast Anode Current Turn-on delay <90ns 3kA IPK 160ns ½ period Jitter <100ps Fall time <40ns di/dt >100kA/ms Capacitor Voltage (Ch2 Max Ref only) 170ns ½ cycle ring down – Yellow = Anode Current, Cyan = Capacitor Voltage ICOPS, Atlantic City, NJ May 23, 2017 6 Solidtron Performance: Ultra-Fast 550ns ½ pulse width ring down Solid state discharge switch offers: • Rugged yet simple gate trigger • Repeatable fabrication and performance • Bidirectional current flow capability • Very high MTBF, minimizing down time Ipk 1.8kA 1ms ½ pulse width ring down Ultra-Fast 1600V Solidtron Discrete products Ipk 1.1kA Available in: • TO-247 • TO-264 • Custom SMT packages ICOPS, Atlantic City, NJ May 23, 2017 7 Solidtron Performance: Ultra-Fast 32.4 kA ½ period 140ns Ultra-Fast 4.0-6.5kV Solidtron Product Family 45.4 kA Capacitor Voltage (Ch2 Max Ref only) Ch1 (black) inverted Anode current 10kA/div Ch2 (green) Anode Voltage ICOPS, Atlantic City, NJ May 23, 2017 8 Solidtron Performance: High Action 6.5kV High Action Solidtron Performance (1) 6.5kV Solidtron Cap Discharge 20.3 kA, 20.8 Vf R~1mW ~50ms ICOPS, Atlantic City, NJ May 23, 2017 9 Solid State Thyratron Replacement Motivation • Plasma Gasification • Linear Accelerators • waste gasification, • Radiotherapy for cancer treatment • coal gasification, • Radiosurgery… • Hydrogen production • Scientific… • Synthesized Fuel Production • Nuclear Fusion Reactors • Plasma Water/Air Purification Systems • Crowbar Circuits • Cleaning of fracking water • Protection of sensitive • Purifying in/out water for electronics…server farms, digital pharmaceutical manufacturing broadcast equipment, the • Purifying in/out water for food Cloud…etc. processing • Radar Modulators • Airplane cabin conditioning • Military…Army, USN, USCG, USMC, • Industrial air pollution USAF • Lasers Systems • Commercial… Airports, Weather, Maritime • Ablation • Spectroscopy • Marx Generators • Lithography • Lightning simulation • Micromachining • Utilities HV insulation testing • Klystron Triggers • The List goes on… • Satellite Communications • UHF Transmitters ICOPS, Atlantic City, NJ May 23, 2017 10 Solid State Thyratron ABB Solid State Thyratron Replacements: ABB: “Due to having higher reliability and lower maintenance costs, ABB’s optimized semiconductor components, mostly as complete assemblies, are increasingly being Rememberused to replace (1) 2cm thyratrons2 Solidtron and demonstratesignitrons.” 100kA/ms!!! ICOPS, Atlantic City, NJ May 23, 2017 11 Disruptive Design Solidtron designed specifically for Thyratron replacement • low cost discrete package • Easily Paralleled or connected/gated in series • Easily cooled with Off-The-Shelf Heatsink (Max dissipation only 29W/level) • No more large presspack clamps and heatsinks !!! 1.00E+06 TO-264 Lead Frame Predicted Performance f ambient 1.00E+05 1ms ½ Pulse Width (500ns rise) f fan cooled E2v & equivalent L3 models 1.00E+04 Excelitas models HY 11 1.00E+03 HY 32/3002 CX2608/ L-4945 freq (Hz) freq 1.00E+02 CX1174/ L-4174 HY 5/53/ L-4883 CX1180/ L-4680 1.00E+01 CX1154/ L-4904 1.00E+00 Ipk (A) ICOPS, Atlantic City, NJ May 23, 2017 12 Ultra-Fast Solid State Thyratron Replacement 40kV SSTR-1 (Twin Stack) Vs. e2v CX2282 TO-264 w/ SGTOEP_A1 TO-247 w/ SGTO4 • Initial TO-247 version demonstrated 365k pulses o 3kA, 300ns square wave • Similar 20kV and 60kV derivatives planned to complete the product offering • TO-264 version offers 36x increase in action ICOPS, Atlantic City, NJ May 23, 2017 13 Solid State Thyratron Replacement Anode Current Capacitor Voltage (Ch2 Max Ref only) 50nSec rise time Peak I >4kA Rep Rate = 100PPS • Yellow - 4.3kA Peak Current w/average di/dt of ~60kA/mSec (Circuit Limited) • Run at 100 Pulses Per Second without cooling ICOPS, Atlantic City, NJ May 23, 2017 14 Solid State Thyratron Replacement 6.5kV High Action Solidtron 10kV (4 level) Gen1 20kV Bi-directional Switch Assembly Pulsing 200kA model shown Replaced NL-8900 Ignitrons in Magnetic Pulse Welding System (13.25” x 10.5” x 4”) • 8 levels of 6 parallel modules (192 chips operating in concert, 96 high action Solidtron and 96 S-diodes • 4 of these units were paralleled for 800kA • More than 10,000 operational events recorded • Yellow - Demonstrates 200kA Ringing Waveform (169kA Peak reverse) NL-8900 Ignitrons failed after only 200 such events – customer’s original motivation to • Magenta – Voltage across a single level – ~2500V to Vf change switching technology • Cyan – 1 of 12 legs – worse case current imbalance (perfect 16.6kA) ICOPS, Atlantic City, NJ May 23, 2017 15 Solid State Thyratron Replacement 6.5kV High Action Solidtron Pulse Switch Assembly Testing of Gen1 80kA unit at ARL • Superior Current Sharing (Cathode 1-Cathode 2) • Excellent Voltage Balance (Across 4 levels) • Synchronized and repeatable 32 Chip turn-on 80 kA Unit #016 in ARL PFN 100 90 80 70 60 Total Current 50 40 Cathode 2 30 Current (kA) Current 20 Cathode 1 10 0 -10 0 100 200 300 400 500 Time (us) ICOPS, Atlantic City, NJ May 23, 2017 16 Solid State Thyratron Replacement I (10kA/D) 58kA, VF 25.35V I2t = 217 kA2s Eswitch = 131 J I2 (1e9A2/D) dT ~ 24C 1x3 PSA with gate drive and grading P (1MW/D) R built into the low footprint cover (<100in3!) PSA Current vs. Forward Drop 70 V (100V/D) 60 PSA: VF (100V/D) R = 375mW 50 VD = 3.63V Modules: Pulse Switch Assembly (PSA): 40 R = 125mW [1] • Simple isolated current transformer gating 30 VD = 1.21V • Coaxial current delivery for very low PSA Current (KA) Current PSA 20 inductance 10 • 10kV DC continuous operation [1] includes ~ 26 mW parasitics 0 • Only 375mW resistance with a diode knee of 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 3.63V! Forward Drop (Volts) ICOPS, Atlantic City, NJ May 23, 2017 17 Summary ICOPS, Atlantic City, NJ May 23, 2017 18 .