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In a field effect diode, carriers of a p–n junction can be modulated on-line. The p and n regions are created by two oppositely biased, and closely spaced, gates in CMOS SOI technology. Using gates as the third terminal, the field effect diode can operate as a switch or as an amplifying element. In this paper, a conventional differential comparator is designed and its performance is compared with a circuit which uses field effect diodes in its output stage. It is shown that the large current sinking and supplying capability of the field effect diode causes this comparator to operate faster than the conventional circuit, consumes less power and covers less chip area.

The reverse conducting-IGBT (RC-IGBT) is a well suited device for soft switching applications, that is, zero voltage switching (ZVS). However, standard RC-IGBTs are optimised for hard switching, which shows different switching waveforms compared with soft switching. In this study, the optimisation of the RC-IGBT is described for soft switching applications using the example of an induction cooker. The investigated induction cooker is implemented by using the single-ended quasi-resonant topology. Simulations show that main losses of the induction cooker occur in the induction coil and the RC-IGBT (power switch). The performance of the coil can be improved mainly by minimising the coil resistance. The IGBT-optimisation is based on the reduction of tail current in the soft switching mode. The IGBT thickness is decreased and the local lifetime is used to achieve lower tail current. A reduction of the overall losses by 30% is achievable. As a result, the cooling system of the IGBT can be smaller and cheaper.

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