Reliability aspects of SiC Schottky diodes

Abstract

AbstractIn recent years, silicon carbide (SiC) high‐voltage power devices have gained an ever‐increasing market share. The fast development of new device concepts and technologies, e.g. for SiC Schottky diodes, has led to devices with superior switching behaviour, which renders SiC power devices especially favourable for high‐frequency applications. As of today, SiC devices enter various fields like, e.g. server power supplies, solar inverters, and drives. These applications pose quite different requirements not only on the electrical properties, but also on the long‐term reliability of the devices. In this paper, we describe in detail how Infineon's SiC Schottky diodes excel the reliability requirements. We point out how material properties, device design and packaging technology affect the overall device reliability and how they can be optimized. In addition, we describe measurement results after stress tests that go far beyond standard stress tests according to JEDEC. E.g., we show that SiC devices can safely be operated at high voltage slopes of 120 V/ns. In addition, we show that the use of high performance die attach further improves the device properties and reliability. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)