Gate Oxide Damage of SiC MOSFETs Induced by Heavy-Ion Strike

This article presents the experimental characterization of SiC MOSFETs exposed to heavy-ion irradiation. Different leakage paths related to the drain bias used during the tests are observed, suggesting different damage sites in the devices, which can be further verified through the post-irradiation measurements. TCAD simulations are utilized to explore the underlying failure mechanisms. Based on the evolution of the gate oxide field, it is shown that the damage first occurs in the middle of the JFET region, while gradually spreads to the channel region with the increase of drain bias, but terminates at the source region. A preliminary model to roughly emulate the drain bias dependence of such degradation behaviors is developed, and the simulation results match the experiments well. Additionally, the emission microscope (EMMI) is carried out so as to detect the latent damage at the die level. The findings in this article demonstrate that more attention should be paid to the damaged gate oxide induced by the heavy-ion strike before SiC MOSFETs could act as a drop-in replacement of Si-based counterparts in avionic applications.