V DS and V GS Depolarization Effect on SiC MOSFET Short-Circuit Withstand Capability Considering Partial Safe Failure-Mode

Yazan Barazi, Frédéric Richardeau, Wadia Jouha and Jean-Michel Reynes
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Yazan Barazi: IRT Saint-Exupery, CS34436, 3 Rue Tarfaya, 31400 Toulouse, France
Frédéric Richardeau: Laplace, University of Toulouse, CNRS, INPT, UPS, 2 Rue Camichel BP7122, 31071 Toulouse, France
Wadia Jouha: Laplace, University of Toulouse, CNRS, INPT, UPS, 2 Rue Camichel BP7122, 31071 Toulouse, France
Jean-Michel Reynes: IRT Saint-Exupery, CS34436, 3 Rue Tarfaya, 31400 Toulouse, France

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 23, 1-18

Abstract: This paper presents a detailed analysis of 1200 V Silicon Carbide (SiC) power MOSFET exhibiting different short-circuit failure mechanisms and improvement in reliability by V DS and V GS depolarization. The device robustness has undergone an incremental pulse under different density decreasing; either drain-source voltage or gate-driver voltage. Unlike silicon device, the SiC MOSFET failure mechanism firstly displays specific gradual gate-cracks mechanism and progressive gate-damage accumulations greater than 4 µs/9 J·cm −2 . Secondly, a classical drain-source thermal runaway appears, as for silicon devices, in a time greater than 9 µs. Correlations with short-circuit energy measurements and temperature simulations are investigated. It is shown that the first mechanism is an incremental soft gate-failure-mode which can be easily used to detect and protect the device by a direct feedback on the gate-driver. Furthermore, it is highlighted that this new mechanism can be sufficiently consolidated to avoid the second drain-source mechanism which is a hard-failure-mode. For this purpose, it is proposed to sufficiently depolarize the on-state gate-drive voltage to reduce the chip heating-rate and thus to decouple the failure modes. The device is much more robust with a short-circuit withstand time higher than 10 µs, as in silicon, no risk of thermal runaway and with an acceptable penalty on R DS-ON .

Keywords: SiC MOSFET; failure analysis; gate damage; fail-to-open; fail-to-short (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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