PURPOSE: To provide a thyristor with an insulating gate, in which one external control terminal is employed to perform a high speed operation.

CONSTITUTION: A p-type base layer 2 is diffused in one surface of a high resistance n-type base layer 1, an n-type emitter layer 3 is diffused in the layer 2, and a p-type emitter layer 5 is formed on the other surface. A gate electrode 8 is formed on the layer 2 of a region interposed between the layers 3 and 1 through a gate insulating film 7, and a control electrode is provided on the layer 2. A cathode electrode 13 is provided on the layer 3, and an anode electrode 6 is provided on the layer 5. The electrode 8 is short-circuited to the electrode 13, and an external control terminal is reduced to only one to be extracted from a control electrode 11.