High-Temperature Electrical and Thermal Aging Performance and Application Considerations for SiC Power DMOSFETs

The temperature dependence and stability of three different commercially-available unpackaged SiC DMOSFETs have been measured. On-state resistances increased to 6 or 7 times their room temperature values at 350 degrees C. Threshold voltages almost doubled after tens of minutes of positive gate voltage stressing at 300 degrees C, but approached their original values again after only one or twominutes of negative gate bias stressing. Fortunately, the change in drain current due to these threshold instabilities was almost negligible. However, the threshold approaches zero volts at high temperatures after a high temperature negative gate bias stress. The zero gate bias leakage is low until the threshold voltage reduces to approximately 150 mV, where-after the leakage increases exponentially. Thermal aging tests demonstrated a sudden change from linear to nonlinear output characteristics after 24-100 h air storage at 300 degrees C and after 570-1000 h in N2 atmosphere. We attribute this to nickel oxide growth on the drain contact metallization which forms a heterojunction p-n diode with the SiC substrate. It was determined that these state-of-the-art SiC MOSFET devices may be operated in real applications at temperatures far exceeding their rated operating temperatures.