Light activated solid state switch
AssigneeUniversity of Rochester
InventorGerard Mourou
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A semiconductor body, having deep lying charge carrier trapping centers, as by being doped with a deep-lying impurity to a concentration such that, at cryogenic temperature, the body is capable of holding off a multi-kilovolt DC bias without thermal instability and of switching the bias with picosecond accuracy to generate pulses of selected durations beyond the subnanosecond range when activated by optical pulses, as from a laser, which are incident thereon.
Claims21
A light activated solid device for switching high voltages, including multi kilovolt level voltages, which comprises a body of semiconductor material having a pair of electrodes separated by a gap upon which light is incident when said device is activated, cryogenic means for cooling said body, and said body having a certain concentration of deep-lying charge carrier having centers therein sufficient to maintain the resistivity of said body in the presence of said high voltages and absence of said light.
A high voltage pulse generator which comprises a body of semiconductor material having a pair of electrodes separated by a gap, said material having a predetermined concentration of deep-lying charge carrier trapping centers, means for applying a DC voltage to one of said electrodes, means for connecting the other set of electrodes to a load, means for cooling said body to a cryogenic temperature, and means for directing a pulse of light at said gap to reduce the resistivity of said body between said electrodes and to switch said high voltage to said load to generate a high voltage pulse at said load, said concentration being sufficient to maintain the resistivity of said body in the presence of said voltage and absence of said light pulse.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.