A high-power photoconductive semiconductor switch (PCSS) employing lateral step doping

In this paper, a photoconductive semiconductor switch (PCSS) device that adopts the lateral step doping structure (LSD) is proposed for the first time. Simulation results show that the lateral step doping structure has significant advantages in improving the voltage resistance of the PCSS. As to a small-size PCSS with a 5 μm electrode gap, the LSD structure could weaken the peak electric field by 61% and improve voltage resistance by 85%. At an electrode gap of 250 μm, the peak electric field of LSD PCSS decreases by 45%. For the small-size PCSS, the use of a 270 nm thick SiO2 anti-reflection film increased the voltage resistance of PCSS by 84% and weakened the peak electric field intensity by 54%. In addition, the use of anti-reflection and high-reflection films increased the photocurrent of PCSS by 96% and reduced the on-state resistance by 49%.