Multi-technique characterizations of single-event burnout (SEB) in silicon carbide (SiC) power MOSFETs

Abstract This study presents a comprehensive investigation of single-event burnout (SEB) in silicon carbide (SiC) power MOSFET employing multilevel advanced techniques. Firstly, the SEB was created by atmospheric neutron irradiation using the ChipIr beamline at ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Facility; to follow, the SEB was analyzed using the medium-range facilities X-Ray computed tomography (XCT), profilometry, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), instrumentation suite of the ISIS@MACH ITALIA Facility (IM@IT). The use of complementary techniques—electrons, light, and neutron probes—provides new results that improve the knowledge of the SEB failure mechanism of SiC power MOSFET. By combining the results from such complementary techniques, this study allows to fully characterize the neutron-induced SEB, the 2D–3D morphology of the samples, and to evaluate the impact on the device. Neutron irradiation leads to a failure mechanism caused by the rapid heating that reaches the sublimation temperature of SiC leading to the displacement of the polyimide passivation layer, due to expansion stress, yielding consistent results of SEB maximum dimensions of $$30 \times 30 \times 12\,{\upmu } \text {m}$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>30</mml:mn> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:mn>30</mml:mn> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:mn>12</mml:mn> <mml:mspace/> <mml:mi>μ</mml:mi> <mml:mtext>m</mml:mtext> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> and volume of about $$9600\,{\upmu }\text {m}^{\text {3}}$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>9600</mml:mn> <mml:mspace/> <mml:mi>μ</mml:mi> <mml:msup> <mml:mtext>m</mml:mtext> <mml:mtext>3</mml:mtext> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> . These studies provide a 2D and 3D characterization of the SiC power MOSFET devices while reinforcing the need for radiation hardening strategies tailored to SiC-based power electronics for high-reliability applications such as automotive, aerospace, and nuclear energy.