A family of emitter controlled thyristors employ plurality of control schemes
for
turning the thyristor an and off. In a first embodiment of the present invention
a family of thyristors are disclosed all of which comprise a pair of MOS transistors,
the first of which is connected in series with the thyristor and a second which
provides a negative feedback to the thyristor gate. A negative voltage applied
to the gate of the first MOS transistor causes the thyristor to turn on to conduct
high currents. A zero to positive voltage applied to the first MOS gate causes
the thyristor to turn off. The negative feedback insures that the thyristor only
operates at its breakover boundaries of the latching condition with the NPN transistor
portion of the thyristor operating in the active region. Under this condition,
the anode voltage VA continues to increase without significant anode
current increase. Emitter turn-off (ETO) thyristor fabrication packages are also
disclosed having packaged semiconductor devices controlling the thyristor.