Displacement Damage and Total Ionizing Dose Induced by 3-MeV Protons in SiC Vertical Power MOSFETs

The radiation effects in SiC power MOSFETs induced by 3-MeV protons at high fluence are evaluated. Significant parametric shifts are observed due to displacement damage (DD) and total ionizing dose (TID) depending on the bias condition and technology generation. Electrical characterizations are used to investigate the <sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">on</small>-state behavior of the MOSFETs. Results revealed a substantial drop of the <sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">on</small>-state current and transconductance induced by DD and charge-carrier compensation at fluences of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$6.72\times 10^{12}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> cm−2 and above, independent of the gate-bias condition during irradiation. The increase in drift resistance and the decrease in gate-drain capacitance indicate effects related to DD in the drift and substrate region of the device, as also supported by technology computer-aided design (TCAD) simulations.