Radiation Effects in SiC Power Devices (Video)

Today’s requirements for higher levels of integration, higher blocking voltages, and higher operating temperatures have increased the demand for advanced power electronic systems based on wide bandgap power semiconductors, such as silicon carbide (SiC). Despite the beneficial characteristics of wide-bandgap devices, the current commercial technologies are highly susceptible to radiation effects, limiting the use in space, avionics, high-energy accelerators, and nuclear industries. Starting from the microscopic effects at device level and moving toward the radiation tolerance and reliability, this talk presents an overview of different radiation effects observed in commercial SiC power devices, highlighting the differences to traditional silicon technology. Single event effects (SEEs) induced by a single ionizing particle, and cumulative effects such as total ionizing dose (TID) and displacement damage (DD) will be discussed, with a focus on the reliability of the commercially available technologies in different radiation environments.