Patent ID: 7157747

Claim:
A bidirectional photothyristor chip, comprising: a first photothyristor portion and a second photothyristor portion each including an anode diffusion region of a first conductive type and a cathode diffusion region of a second conductive type and formed away from each other on a surface of one semiconductor chip; and a channel isolation region formed on the surface of the semiconductor chip for separating a channel of the first photothyristor portion and a channel of the second photothyristor portion, wherein the anode diffusion region of the first photothyristor portion and the cathode diffusion region of the second photothyristor portion are electrically connected to each other, while the cathode diffusion region of the first photothyristor portion and the anode diffusion region of the second photothyristor portion are electrically connected to each other; and the anode diffusion region is disposed closer to a side of the channel isolation region than the cathode diffusion region in the first and second photothyristor portions.