Experiment and simulation on degradation and burnout mechanisms of SiC MOSFET under heavy ion irradiation

Experiments and simulation studies on 283 MeV I ion induced single event effects of silicon carbide (SiC) metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) were carried out. When the cumulative irradiation fluence of the SiC MOSFET reached 5 × 10⁶ ion⋅cm⁻², the drain-gate channel current increased under 200 V drain voltage, the drain-gate channel current and the drain-source channel current increased under 350 V drain voltage. The device occurred single event burnout under 800 V drain voltage, resulting in a complete loss of breakdown voltage. Combined with emission microscope, scanning electron microscope and focused ion beam analysis, the device with increased drain-gate channel current and drain-source channel current was found to have drain-gate channel current leakage point and local source metal melt, and the device with single event burnout was found to have local melting of its gate, source, epitaxial layer and substrate. Combining with Monte Carlo simulation and TCAD electrothermal simulation, it was found that the initial area of single event burnout might occur at the source-gate corner or the substrate-epitaxial interface, electric field and current density both affected the lattice temperature peak. The excessive lattice temperature during the irradiation process appeared at the local source contact, which led to the drain-source channel damage. And the excessive electric field appeared in the gate oxide layer, resulting in drain-gate channel damage.