The performance of the trench gated emitter switched thyristor (TEST) is investigated by numerical simulations. More specifically, the influence of the N+ floating emitter on the forward voltage drop and forward-biased safe operating area (FBSOA) is studied in detail. It is demonstrated that, by reducing the doping of this region, the FBSOA of the TEST can be significantly increased with a negligible degradation of the forward voltage drop V-CE(SAT). Moreover, a new cathode design is proposed for the TEST by removing the connection between the two P base regions and leaving one of them floating. By doing so, the snap-back from the static turn-on is removed, and the forward voltage drop is improved even for a lower doping of the N+ floating emitter. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.