The history of the laboratory goes back to early
1960s. Traditionally, its research activities were primarily focused on pulse
power devices.
The founder of the laboratory Professor Igor Grekhov,
in 1960-1975, was one of the principal members of the team (led by V.M.
Tuchkevich) whose work provided a basis for establishing the high current
semiconductor device components industry in the USSR. This allowed a drastic
reduction of energy consumption in power supply applications.
The research efforts resulted in invention of the
new-type high-voltage pulse power semiconductor devices covering the duration
range of the switched electric pulses from hundreds microseconds to dozens of
picoseconds. These devices have found numerous applications for power lasers,
accelerators, wide-band radar engineering and many other research and
industrial technologies.
The major silicon devices developed at the laboratory
are:
– reversely switched dynistors (RSD), microsecond range;
– drift step recovery diodes (RSRD), nanosecond range;
– silicon avalanche sharpening diodes (SAS), subnanosecond range;
– field-controlled integrated thyristors, microsecond range.
Apart from Si devices, the laboratory is performing
research and development of the SiC high-voltage and pulse power devices.
Other topics of solid-state physics such as high
temperature superconductivity, ferroelectric (PZT) memories, tunneling MOS
structures, optoelectronics of porous Si were also studied in the laboratory.
