Single-Event Burnout Hardening 4H-SiC UMOSFET Structure

Abstract

In this paper, we propose 4H-SiC UMOSFET structure with improved single-event burnout (SEB) hardening characteristics, and compare it with the conventional UMOSFET structure by conducting numerical technology computer-aided design (TCAD) simulations. The SEB safe operating areas are extracted when heavy ions with different linear energy transfer (LET) collide with the device. Because integrated heterojunction diode (HJD) in proposed structure features hole collection effect due to the difference of the valence band energy level, the generated hole current can be leaked off efficiently. With a LET value of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.01~{\sim }~0.09$ </tex-math></inline-formula> pC/ <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\mu }\text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> , the proposed MOSFET has 25% higher SEB threshold voltage than conventional MOSFET due to the suppressed parasitic BJT operation. Therefore, proposed structure can provide superior SEB viability for space and atmospheric applications.