A comprehensive study of the short-circuit ruggedness of silicon carbide power MOSFETs

Romano, Gianpaolo; Fayyaz, Asad; Riccio, Michele; Maresca, Luca; Breglio, Giovanni; Castellazzi, Alberto; Irace, Andrea

Abstract

The behavior of Silicon Carbide Power MOSFETs under stressful short circuit conditions is investigated in this paper. Illustration of two different short-circuit failure phenomena for Silicon Carbide Power MOSFETs are thoroughly reported. Experimental evidences and TCAD electro-thermal simulations are exploited to describe and discriminate the failure sources. Physical causes are finally investigated and explained by means of properly calibrated numerical investigations, and are reported along with their effects on devices short-circuit capability.

Citation

Romano, G., Fayyaz, A., Riccio, M., Maresca, L., Breglio, G., Castellazzi, A., & Irace, A. (2016). A comprehensive study of the short-circuit ruggedness of silicon carbide power MOSFETs. IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, 4(3), 978-987. https://doi.org/10.1109/JESTPE.2016.2563220

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 14, 2016
• Online Publication Date: May 4, 2016
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: May 25, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: May 25, 2016
• Journal: IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics
• Print ISSN: 2168-6777
• Electronic ISSN: 2168-6785
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 978-987
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/JESTPE.2016.2563220
• Keywords: Short-circuit failure mechanism, short-circuit ruggedness, Silicon Carbide (SiC) Power MOSFETs, thermal runaway
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/975264
• Publisher URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=7464825&refinements%3D4225669346%26filter%3DAND%28p_IS_Number%3A6507303%29
• Additional Information: (c) 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.
• Contract Date: May 25, 2016