Impact of Terrestrial Neutrons on the Reliability of SiC VD-MOSFET Technologies

Abstract

Accelerated terrestrial neutron irradiations were performed on different commercial SiC power MOSFETs with planar, trench and double-trench architectures. The results were used to calculate the failure cross-sections and the failure in time (FIT) rates at sea level. Enhanced gate and drain leakage were observed in some devices which did not exhibit a destructive failure during the exposure. In particular, a different mechanism was observed for planar and trench gate MOSFETs, the first showing a partial gate rupture with a leakage path mostly between drain and gate, similar to what was previously observed with heavy-ions, while the second exhibiting a complete gate rupture. The observed failure mechanisms and the post irradiation gate stress (PIGS) tests are discussed for the different technologies.