Masayoshi Suzuki

Highly reliable silicon micromachined physical sensors in mass production

Abstract Silicon micromachined physical sensors such as silicon pressure sensors and accelerometers are now in mass production in response to the strong market demands. In the design of such sensors, it is most important to guarantee high reliability as well as low cost. To respond to these demands for microsensors, the designs of device structure, production processes and packaging have been investigated in detail.

A fully automatic critical slew rate tester for thyristors

The author describes a critical slew rate (dv/dt) test method for thyristors (p-n-p-n switches). A voltage-controlled ramp function generator has been developed with an adjustable slew rate. The maximum voltage is 400 V and the maximum slew rate is 3000 V/μs. For high-speed measurements, a novel method, denoted as the after-firing method, is developed which reduces the measurement time down to between 1/100 and 1/1000 of the conventional method time. Critical slew rates over the range of 1-3000 V/μs can be measured using this method in about 100 ms.