A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor body having a base region incorporating a field stop zone where the base region and the field stop zone are both formed using an epitaxial process. Furthermore, the epitaxial layer field stop zone is formed with an enhanced doping profile to realize improved soft-switching performance for the semiconductor device. In some embodiments, the enhanced doping profile includes multiple doped regions with peak doping levels where a first doped region adjacent to a first side of the field stop zone has a first peak doping level that is not higher than a last peak doping level of a last doped region adjacent to the base region. The epitaxial layer field stop zone of the present invention enables complex field stop zone doping profiles to be used to obtain the desired soft-switching characteristics in the semiconductor device.