FETs, IGBTs and semiconductor history (was Xantrex versus Sunny Boy) [RE-wrenche

[Joel Davidson]

Special thanks to Chris Brock, one of our PV customers who monitors the
RE-wrenches dialogue, for pointing out that the Insulated Gate Bipolar
Transistor (IGBT) is a hybrid of a power FET and a bipolar transistor.

FETs came before IGBTs. I meant Silicon Controlled Rectifiers (SCR) came
before Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFET).

I think anti-Luddites would enjoy internet surfing the history of SCRs,
FETs and IGBTs (for example search IGBT +history).

Here are some highlights from International Rectifier history:
June 1958 Solar cells and zener diodes introduced
September 1959 First SCR introduced
May 1960 IR introduces world's first solar car
February 1974 IR introduces bipolar and Darlington transistors
June 1979 IR introduces the power MOSFET
December 1988 600V IGBTs introduced.

Also, Frank Wheatley at RCA filed Patent No. 4,364,073, “Power MOSFET
with an Anode Region” in March 1980 which I think is the basic IGBT
patent.

Also, In 1970, when IBM was searching for a way to lower the cost of RAM
to compete with magnetic disks, Bob Dennard, the inventor of the 1
transistor DRAM cell, and other IBM researchers presented the classic
paper on scaling "Design of Ion-Implanted MOSFET's with Very Small
Physical Dimensions." Scaling theory “would eventually end the supremacy
of bipolar ICs. Bipolar technology does not scale the way MOSFET
technology does and by the early nineties MOSFET technology was the
dominant high-end, high-speed technology.”

Other interesting web sites:
The MOSFET - Introduction at
http://ece-www.colorado.edu/~bart/book/mosintro.htm

History and development of switched-mode power supplies pre 1987 at
http://www.steve-w.dircon.co.uk/fleadh/mphil/history.htm

Mark Fitzgerald's PV history at http://www.pvpower.com/pvhistory.html

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