Investigation on Degradation of SiC MOSFET Under Accelerated Stress in a PFC Converter
Abstract
The reliability concern of SiC MOSFETs has been extensively investigated with various accelerated stress tests. However, these conventional tests are predominantly performed in a simplified and controlled testing environment, which might or might not realistically simulate the actual device operation profiles in power converters. In this article, we report the long-term degradation phenomenon of several types of SiC MOSFETs in an actual 2-kW power factor correction (PFC) converter and provide an analysis of the degradation mechanisms. Compared to conventional dc power cycling tests, a large decrease in threshold voltage was observed due to gate oxide degradation of SiC MOSFET in a PFC converter. Online monitoring results show that the ON-state voltage drop of SiC MOSFET continuously rises with the increase of stress times. The increase in ON-state voltage is caused by the change of package resistance and channel resistance. Gate oxide degradation resulting in a large increase in drain-source leakage current and gate leakage current. Meanwhile, the variation of miller plateau voltage and threshold voltage results in a significant change of turn-on losses in SiC MOSFET. TCAD simulation, and C- V measurement indicate that the main degradation mechanism is hot holes accumulation within the gate oxide above the JFET region and channel region due to high electric field stress.
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- Authors
- Jiang, X., Wang, J., Chen, J., Yu, H., Li, Z., & John Shen, Z.
- Affiliations
- Hunan University (CN)
- Venue
- IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics
- Published
- 2021-08
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 4299-4310
- ISSN
- 2168-6777 (ISSN-L)
- 2168-6785
- OpenAlex
- W3016375642
- Cited by
- 39
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 1.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- High-level Talent Gathering Project of Hunan Province (201833401202)
- Science and Technology Major Project of Hunan Province (2017GK1020)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Silicon Carbide Semiconductor Technologies
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Semiconductor materials and devices
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Advanced DC-DC Converters
- Keywords
- SiC MOSFET, device degradation, power factor correction converter, gate oxide degradation, threshold voltage shift, on-state voltage drop, channel resistance, gate leakage current, turn-on loss, degradation mechanism, reliability, TCAD simulation, capacitance-voltage measurements
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