CONTROLLED RESISTANCE INTEGRATED SNUBBER FOR POWER SWITCHING DEVICE

A semiconductor substrate has a main surface, a rear surface, an active device region, and an inactive region adjacent the active device region. Doped source, body, drift and drain regions, and electrically conductive gate and field electrodes are disposed in the active device region. The gate electrode is configured to control an electrical connection between the source and drain regions. The field electrode is adjacent to the drift region. A dielectric layer is disposed on the main surface, an electrically conductive source pad is formed in a first metallization layer that is formed on the dielectric layer. A resistor is connected between the source pad and the field electrode. The resistor includes an electrically conductive resistance section that is disposed in a resistor trench. The resistor trench is formed within the inactive region and is electrically isolated from every active device within the active device region.