Estimating Terrestrial Neutron-Induced SEB Cross Sections and FIT Rates for High-Voltage SiC Power MOSFETs

Abstract

Cross sections and failure in time rates for neutroninduced single-event burnout (SEB) are estimated for SiC power MOSFETs using a method based on combining results from heavy ion SEB experimental data, 3-D TCAD prediction of sensitive volumes, and Monte Carlo radiation transport simulations of secondary particle production. The results agree well with experimental data and are useful in understanding the mechanisms for neutron-induced SEB data. Index Terms-Cross section, failure in time (FIT), heavy ion, Monte Carlo, MOSFET, Monte Carlo radiative energy deposition (MRED), neutron, power, silicon carbide (SiC), singleevent burnout (SEB).

Ion-Induced Energy Pulse Mechanism for Single-Event Burnout in High-Voltage SiC Power MOSFETs and Junction Barrier Schottky Diodes

“…The ion-induced redistribution of the electrostatic potential and the electric fields are also shown in Figure 7, with 1D-cutlines taken along the center of the ion track, shown in Figure 8, to establish a quantitative measure in lieu of a colored legend. The ion strike is centered above the corner of the p-region, where the pre-strike maximum electric field is located [9,18]. This point in time, 5 ps, corresponds to the peak current transient shown in Figure 6, which is identical for both the MOSFET and JBS diode.…”

“…3D TCAD models of a 1200 V SiC power MOSFET and JBS diode, Figure 2, were developed in the Synopsys Sentaurus suite of TCAD tools, version K-2015.06, [17], based on information from published literature [9,10,18]. The devices have an epi thickness of 10 µm, with doping in the mid-10 15 cm -3 range, with an additional 15 µm of highly-doped drain (the highlydoped drain is truncated in Figure 2 for visualization purposes).…”

Accelerated Tests on Si and SiC Power Transistors with Thermal, Fast and Ultra-Fast Neutrons

“…Neutron lattice collisions produce recoil atoms or spallation products that create electron-hole pairs along its trajectory through the lattice. These charge-plasmas may turn on the parasitic bipolar junction transistor, which leads the device from its normal off-state blocking voltage to its second breakdown state [16] or it settles in the sensitive volume of the device such as the epi/substrate junction [17]. Both mechanisms lead to SEB failure.…”

“…Power electronic devices that are vulnerable to terrestrial cosmic radiation, such as MOSFETs, IGBTs, and diodes with the minimum nominal blocking voltage of 300 V [18], are subject to accelerated neutron testing to estimate the failure in time (FIT) (1 FIT corresponding to on failure in 10 9 device-hours) parameter under different bias conditions [4,[10][11][12][13]17]. Several facilities exist, which provide accelerated testing of devices with the high energy atmospheric-like neutron spectrum, such as those at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) in the USA and the ChipIr at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, U.K. [19].…”

Simulation study of single event effects sensitivity on commercial power MOSFET with single heavy ion radiation

“…SEB effect results in the drain to source shortening and SEGR effect damage the gate oxide dielectric. Therefore, there is a necessity to enhance the performance of power MOSFETs in space applications [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. Hence, the motivation of this research work is to study the effect of particle radiation on commercial Power MOSFET by using single heavy ion radiation source.…”