Impact of neutron irradiation on SiC power MOSFETs after stress tests qualification

Abstract

The failure of power devices produced by atmospheric neutrons, even at sea level, is a critical issue to assess the reliability of these devices in automotive applications. Usually, accelerated neutron tests are performed to estimate the failure in time (FIT) values of the power devices under different operating conditions, by using virgin device samples. In this work, neutron tests were performed on commercial SiC power MOSFETs which pass HTGB and HTRB qualification tests, commonly used in automotive qualification procedures to verify the gate-oxide and junction and termination integrity. The impact of these reliability qualification tests on the neutron FIT values was investigated.