Electrothermal Power Cycling to Failure of Discrete Planar, Symmetrical Double-Trench and Asymmetrical Trench SiC MOSFETs

While SiC MOSFETs are now being utilized in industry their robustness under heavy-duty applications still remains a concern. In this paper, the results of experimental measurements of degradation to failure of different structured SiC power MOSFETs, namely the planar, symmetrical double-trench and asymmetrical trench structures are presented following electrothermal stressing by power cycling to beyond the safe operating area (SOA) limits. The tests are categorised in to subsets with/without forced cooling. The first set of tests involve successive switchings of the devices under constant DC current supply while their case temperature is monitored in real-time to evaluate their thermal performance. The symmetrical double-trench and asymmetrical trench MOSFETs are found to experience a higher case temperature rise thus prone to breakdown while failure is not observed in the planar structured device. The second experiment stresses the devices during continuous power cyclings with force cooling applied, in which the symmetrical and asymmetrical double-trench MOSFETs still encounter failure with detectable breakdown on the gate oxides, compared with the planar device which only exhibits degradation, without failure, with indications of aging.