(Invited) Ruggedness of SiC and GaN Power Transistors in Switching Based Tests. (8th September 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Ruizhe; Kozak, Joseph; Liu, Jingcun; Zhang, Yuhao
• Is Part Of: ECS transactions. Volume 98:Number 6(2020)
• Page Start: 37
• Page End: 48
• Publication Date: 2020-09-08
• Subjects: Electrochemistry -- Periodicals; Electrochemistry; Periodicals; Electronic journals; Electronic journal; 541.37
• DOI: 10.1149/09806.0037ecst
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1938-5862

Abstract

Abstract : Currently, a spectrum of reliability tests are being performed by both device manufacturers and end users. Many of these qualification tests are operated within the device safe-operating-area (SOA), however, the devices often undergo dynamic events in many converter applications that can exceed the SOA boundaries. This paper presents our recent work on quantifying the out-of-SOA robustness of GaN power high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) and SiC power MOSFETs by switching based tests. The unclamped inductive switching stresses are applied to p-gate GaN HEMTs to evaluate their surge-energy and overvoltage robustness. The continuous, hard-switching, turn-off stresses are applied to SiC MOSFETs to evaluate their overvoltage switching robustness. Both experiments demonstrate the robustness of SiC and GaN devices under out-of-SOA switching events, and the physics of degradation and failure are understood.