TRENCH MOSFET CONTACTS

A device has an active area made of an array of first type of device cells and a gate or shield contact area made of an array of a second type of device cells that are laid out at a wider pitch than the array of first type of device cells. Each device cell in the active area includes a trench that contains a gate electrode and an adjoining mesa that contains the drain, source, body, and channel regions of the device. The second type of device cell includes a trench that is wider than the trench in the first device cell, but a mesa of the second type of device cell has about the same width as the mesa of the first type of device cell. Having about the same width, the mesa in the second type of device cell in the contact area has similar breakdown characteristics as a mesa in the first type of device cell in the active area of the device.