Energy capability of lateral and vertical DMOS transistors in an advanced automotive smart power technology

Abstract

Thermal failure of 65 V-rated SMARTMOS power devices is analyzed. Failure time measurements in the l ms range correlate with a 3D analytical model. The failure mechanism is shown to be purely thermal, not electrical. The RESURF LDMOS and updrain TMOS devices have equal energy capability per unit area. The low specific on-resistance of the LDMOS (1.6 mCl-cm2) gives it a significant advantage over the updrain TMOS (2.3 m0-cm2) for many automotive applications.

Reliability assessment of integrated power transistors: Lateral DMOS versus vertical DMOS

“…safety-critical applications in automotive. Therefore a lot of research is done to understand the different reliability effects in integrated power devices, and to improve and optimise the transistors for maximum reliability [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. Most research is for LDMOS transistors, as these devices are much easier to integrate and as such are more common in smart power technologies.…”

An Easily Implementable Approach to Increase the Energy Capability of DMOS Transistors

“…Therefore, there is a high risk of hot-spot formation in the region with excessive temperature, which could finally result in the thermal destruction of the DMOS transistor. Thus, the shrinking potential of modern power technologies is not fully exploitable because of thermal limitations [3].…”