It has been demonstrated experimentally that the switch-off time of a high-voltage power (1.8 kV, 3.8 A) 4H-SiC bipolar junction transistor in the deep-saturation mode can be decreased from 200 to 25 ns by using an appropriate switch-off base signal. In such conditions, the switch-off time in the common-emitter configuration can be shorter than the switch-on time. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.