Patent ID: 8502346

Claim:
A semiconductor device disposed on a semiconductor substrate having an active cell area and a termination area laterally away from the active cell area comprising: a vertical semiconductor device having a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) gate structure in the active area with a collector electrode on a bottom surface and an anode/emitter metal electrode disposed on a top surface of the semiconductor substrate; the semiconductor substrate further having an epitaxial layer of a first conductivity type supporting the MOS gate near the top surface including a first dopant region of a second conductivity type electrically contacting the anode/emitter metal electrode disposed on the top surface; and a cathode metal electrode disposed on the top surface in the termination area above a second dopant region of the first conductivity type electrically contacting the epitaxial layer wherein the first dopant region in the active cell area interfacing with the epitaxial layer and the epitaxial layer interfacing with the second dopant region in the termination area constituting a lateral PiN diode with the epitaxial layer of the first conductivity functioning as an intrinsic layer of the PiN diode.