Patent ID: 7091557

Claim:
A semiconductor component comprising: a first semiconductor zone of a first conduction type; a second semiconductor zone of a second conduction type; a drift zone arranged between the first semiconductor zone and the second semiconductor zone, wherein the drift zone has at least one third semiconductor zone of the second conduction type extending between the first semiconductor zone and the second semiconductor zone and at least one fourth semiconductor zone of the first conduction type adjoining the third semiconductor zone; wherein the third zone enables a current flow between the first semiconductor zone and the second semiconductor zone in a current flow direction, and charge carriers of the third and fourth semiconductor zone at least partially compensate for one another in the event of a reverse-biased junction between the first semiconductor zone and the third semiconductor zone; and wherein a degree of compensation is determined in individual regions of the drift zone by the difference between the number of dopant atoms of the first conduction type and the number of dopant atoms of the second conduction type relative to the number of dopant atoms of the second conduction type, wherein each of said individual regions in a direction perpendicular to pn-junctions between adjacent third and fourth semiconductor zones at least includes a portion of one third zone and a portion of one adjacent fourth zone, and wherein the degree of compensation varies at least in a section of the drift zone in a direction perpendicular to the current flow direction.