Process for manufacturing a thyristor with proton irradiation

摘要

A process for making a thyristor device protected against breakover firing is to generate in the semiconductor body (1) of the thyristor an area (A) which has a lower breakdown voltage than the rest of the semiconductor body. This area is protected by suitable measures when the thyristor is overloaded. The invention features a process in which the area (A) of the semiconductor body (1) is irradiated locally with protons, with the proton energy being measured in such a manner that the maximum of the defect density and doping generated by the proton irradiation lies between the PN junction (15) of the first base region (9) and the second base region (10) and the half thickness of the second base region (10), and the semiconductor body (1) is subsequently heat-treated.