Response of commercial Si-IGBT to neutrons and direction dependency

Abstract

Silicon-insulated gate bipolar transistors (Si-IGBTs) are widely used for power control. In this study, we measured the energy deposited inside a commercial device with neutrons irradiation from 252Cf. We irradiated the device from the sealing and heat sink sides to evaluate the directional characteristics. A radiation simulation analysis was performed to understand the measurement results. The experiment and simulation showed that energy deposition in the device occurs through elastic scattering of neutrons and nuclear reactions. In particular, protons were generated by elastic scattering in the sealing material when the device was irradiated from the sealing side. Thus, the effect of neutrons on commercial Si-IGBTs is due to not only reactions inside the device but also secondary particles from the sealing material. When irradiated with high-energy neutrons, the knocked-out protons from sealing possibly cause single-event burnout (SEB). Therefore, the probability of SEB may depend on the direction of neutron incidence.