A trench MOSFET includes mesa regions between the trenches. The mesa
regions are connected to an emitter electrode to fix the mesa region
potential so that the mesa regions do not form a floating structure.
P-type base regions are distributed in the mesa regions, and the
distributed p-type base regions (e.g., the limited regions in the mesa
regions) are provided with an emitter structure. The trench MOSFET can
lower the switching losses, reducing the total losses while suppressing
the ON-state voltage drop of the trench IGBT as low as the ON-state
voltage drop of the IEGT, and improving the turn-on characteristics
thereof. The trench MOSFET also can reduce the capacitance between the
gates and the emitter thereof, since the regions where the gate electrode
faces the emitter structure are reduced. The trench MOSFET can have
trench gate structures set at a narrow interval to relax the electric
field localization to the bottom portions of the trenches and obtain a
high breakdown voltage. The trench MOSFET narrows the mesa region width
between the trenches such that the portions of the n-type layer in the
mesa regions extending between the trenches are depleted easily by
applying a voltage of around several volts.