Abstract
Heavy-ion microbeams are employed for probing the radiation-sensitive regions in commercial silicon carbide (SiC) vertical double-diffused power (VD)-MOSFETs with micrometer accuracy. By scanning the beam spot over the die, a spatial periodicity was observed in the leakage current degradation, reflecting the striped structure of the power MOSFET investigated. Two different mechanisms were observed for degradation. At low drain bias (gate and source grounded), only the gate-oxide (at the JFET or neck region) is contributing in the ion-induced leakage current. For exposures at drain-source bias voltages higher than a specific threshold, additional higher drain leakage current is observed in the p-n junction region. This provides useful insights into the understanding of basic phenomena of single-event effects in SiC power devices.
Highlights
S ILICON carbide (SiC) is a wide bandgap material of great interest for high-power and high-temperature electronic applications, including space [1], [2] and accelerators [3].Higher breakdown field and thermal conductivity makes SiCManuscript received April 9, 2020; revised June 7, 2020 and June 9, 2020; accepted June 11, 2020
The source measure units (SMUs) range was automatically selected during the measurements, leading to different measurement sensitivity during the runs due to the elevated baseline for the leakage current caused by the degradation induced by the radiation
Second- and third-generation commercial SiC vertical double-diffused power (VD)-MOSFETs from the manufacturer Cree/Wolfspeed were used as devices under test (DUTs)
Summary
S ILICON carbide (SiC) is a wide bandgap material of great interest for high-power and high-temperature electronic applications, including space [1], [2] and accelerators [3].Higher breakdown field and thermal conductivity makes SiCManuscript received April 9, 2020; revised June 7, 2020 and June 9, 2020; accepted June 11, 2020. Like their silicon counterparts, SiC power devices (MOSFETs and diodes) are sensitive to single-event effects (SEEs). For power MOSFETs, single ions can cause permanent degradation that leads to a gradual increased leakage in both drain and gate currents with increasing heavy-ion fluence. This damage is not catastrophic, but the device operation may be altered, which complicates the assessment of radiation tolerance in these parts. This effect is here referred to as single-event leakage current (SELC)
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