Patent ID: 8067797

Claim:
An IGBT comprising: a semiconductor body that includes a top surface and a bottom surface, and a drift region of one conductivity type; a base region of another conductivity type over said drift region; a plurality of trenches extending through said base region into said drift region, emitter regions adjacent said trenches; and an insulated gate electrode inside each of said trenches, wherein each trench includes a channel region adjacent a respective sidewall thereof which upon application of a respective threshold voltage can be converted to a channel connecting an adjacently disposed emitter region and said drift region, and wherein at least a first group of said channel regions requires a first threshold voltage and at least a second group of said channel regions requires a second threshold voltage, said first threshold voltage is a device threshold voltage and said first threshold voltage and said second threshold voltage have different magnitudes and the same polarity; and wherein threshold voltages are different for each of said plurality of trenches.