662 



THE BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOURNAL, MAY 1956 



a: 



a: 



D 

 U 



Vb 



v„ 



VOLTAGE 



Fig. 1 — (a). Ideal rectifier, (b). Semiconductor rectifier. 



sion technique^ for producing large area junctions in silicon was an- 

 nounced. This technique lends itself very readily to controlling the 

 position of junctions in silicon. An early rectifier^ made by this tech-- 

 nique was one half cm^ in area and conducted 8 amperes at one volt in i 

 the forward direction and about 2 milliamperes at 80 volts in the re-- 

 verse direction. The series resistance of this device was approximately' 

 0.07 ohms. 



1.2 In order to understand quantitatively the problems associated! 

 with power rectifier development, consider Fig. 1(a) which shows what I 

 an engineer would like in the way of an ideal rectifier. It will pass a 

 large amount of current in the forward direction without any voltage. 



3 Pearson, G. L., and Fuller, C. S., Proc. I.Il.E., 42, No. 4., 1954. I 



