Performance of electronic switching circuits based on bipolar power transistors at low temperature

Abstract

In this paper, the performance of the bipolar power transistor of the type MJE13007 was evaluated under very low temperature levels. The investigation was carried out to establish a baseline on functionality and to determine suitability of this device for use in space applications under cryogenic temperatures. The static and dynamic electrical characteristics of the proposed transistor were studied at low temperature levels ranging from room level (300 K) down to 100 K. From which, it is clear that, several electrical parameters were affected due to operation on such very low temperature range, e.g. the threshold voltage (Vγ) increasing from 0.62 up to 1.05 V; while the current gain hFE decreases significantly from 26 down to 0.54. Also, the capacitance-voltage relationships (C-V) of the collector-base and emitter-base junctions were studied at cryogenic temperatures, where a pronounced decrease was observed in the capacitances value due to temperature decrease. For example, at F = 50 kHz; CCB and CBE decreased from 2.33 nF down to 0.07 nF and from 36.2 down to 12 nF, respectively due to decreasing of temperature level from 300 down to 100 K. Finally the study was extended to include the dynamic characteristics and switching properties of the tested high power transistor. The dependency of both the rise and fall times (tr, tf) on the temperature shows great variations with temperature. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.