Abstract: A thermally and electrically conductive strain buffer for a semiconductor device is made by a method that comprises the steps of (a) providing a plurality of straight, equal-length strands of copper, with the strands aligned such that their lengths are substantially parallel and their ends define a pair of opposing surfaces and (b) closing packing the strands together. Then, layers of highly conductive metal are deposited on said opposing surfaces, and the deposited metal layers provide sufficient structural integrity to hold the strands together so that the resulting strain buffer can be manipulated with substantially no break-up thereof and with substantially no loss of individual ones of the strands.

Abstract: A field terminated diode device includes contiguous anode, base, and cathode regions, which are respectively P+, N-, and N+ semiconductor material. The N- base region includes therein a grid region of P type semiconductor material. The grid region includes grid openings which define channels in the grid region for communicating charge carriers between the anode and cathode regions. Means are provided for electrically connecting to the anode and cathode regions and to the grid region. In one embodiment, the grid channels are nonuniform in that their average widths increase from the center to the perimeter of the device. In another embodiment, the nonuniform channels are distributed throughout the grid region.