High-voltage device termination techniques a comparative review

High-voltage power device performance is often limited by the ability to approach nearly ideal behaviour at the edges of the chip. Consequently, a large number of termination techniques have been explored to reduce the surface electric field at the edges of devices, and so to maximise the breakdown voltage. The paper provides a review of these techniques. A comparison between the various approaches is then performed with consideration for device type (thyristors, field-effect transistors, transistors etc.) and device die size. This comparison is intended to serve as a guide to choosing the device termination appropriate for each application.