(Invited) Total Dose Effects and Single Event Upsets During Radiation Damage of GaN and SiC

Abstract

SiC and GaN power devices are used in the automotive, wireless, and industrial power markets, but their adoption into space and avionic applications is hindered by their susceptibility to permanent degradation and catastrophic failure from heavy-ion exposure. Efforts to space-qualify wide bandgap power devices have revealed that they are susceptible to damage from the high-energy, heavy-ion space radiation environment (galactic cosmic rays) that cannot be shielded. GaN and SiC transistors have shown failure susceptibility at about 50% of the rated voltage. SiC components have demonstrated susceptibility to radiation damage under heavy-ion single-event effects testing, reducing their utility in the space galactic cosmic ray (GCR) environment. In SiC-based Schottky diodes, catastrophic single-event burnout (SEB) and other single-event effects (SEE) have been observed at ~40% of the rated operating voltage, as well as an unacceptable degradation in leakage current at ~20% of the rated operating voltage.