IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - June 2015 - 21

while requiring lower drive
power. The device's inventor,
B. Jayant Baliga, manager of
GE's High Voltage Device Unit
examines one of the photo
masks used to create the devices
intricate circuitry.
According to Bill Austin [43], this
photo and caption, distributed by
United Press International, appeared
in approximately 750 daily newspapers across the United States.
On 20 June 1983, the GE Semiconductor Products Department released
the first IGBT product: a power-MOS
IGT D94FQ4, R4 with ratings of 400,
500 V, and 18 A based on my chip design and manufacturing process. In
conjunction with the IGBT product
release, I accompanied Dan Schwab
from the Marketing Department on
a press tour through the New York
City and the Boston areas. This effort
established GE as the leader in the
invention, development, and commercialization of the IGBT. In 1983, GE
received a Product of the Year Award
from Electronic Products Magazine
and an IR-100 Award from the industrial research magazine for the IGT. I
was featured in the GE 1983/84 Winter Monogram magazine among the
six "Edisons and Steinmetzes of our
time" [44] for my invention and development of the IGBT. The article states:
"The device is expected to have applications in almost every General Electric business."

IGBT Technology Establishment
After creating the first IGBT product
in 1983 and seeing its widespread
acceptance within GE for applications, I wanted to expand its utility by
developing high blocking voltage and
complementary structures. In 1984, I
recruited Paul Chow from the VLSI
group at GE to work under me in the
Power Device Group on the IGBT.
Our fruitful collaboration produced
the following valuable information: 1)
p-channel IGBTs had a similar performance to n-channel devices [45]
resulting in the Genius I/O product
release by GE in 1986 for factory

automation, 2) demonstration of
excellent blocking voltage scaling of
IGBTs [46], and 3) demonstration of
the greatly improved on-state and
latch-up performance of IGBTs using
thinner gate oxide [47]. I also directed the work of Hsueh-Rong Chang to
demonstrate the first U-MOS IGBT
structure [48] shown in Figure 1.
After 1985, the responsibility for the
development of IGBT products was
transferred to the GE Power Device
Products Division led by King Owyang and supported by Mike Chang
and Hamsa Yilmaz.
After the release of the IGBT product by GE in June 1983, the GE Research Center routinely made presentations on the IGBT to visitors from
across the globe as one of the important innovations invented and developed there. Among these visitors was
a delegation from the Japanese power semiconductor manufacturers,

including Fuji Electric, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, and Toshiba. GE's presentation precipitated a concerted effort
in Japan to develop and manufacture
IGBTs [49]. The first IGBT made by a
Japanese company was reported by
Akio Nakagawa in December 1984
[50]. Toshiba commercialized the
IGBT in 1985, followed by Fuji Electric in 1986 and Mitsubishi Electric
in 1987. GE divisions began to procure IGBTs from these companies for
their products.
In 1987, Jack Welch decided to exit
the semiconductor business because
the VLSI technology at GE was not
competitive despite large investments.
Although given the option to take
greater management responsibilities
at GE, I left GE in 1988 to begin the
first focused academic power semiconductor device research activity
at North Carolina State University by
founding the Power Semiconductor

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* Fast-acting fuses for the protection of
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* Power electronics cooling systems
* Laminated bus bar

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June 2015

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