Degradation Assessment and Precursor Identification for SiC MOSFETs Under High Temp Cycling
Abstract
Silicon carbide (SiC) power mosfets are promising alternatives to Si devices in high-voltage, high-frequency, and high-temperature applications. The rapid and widespread deployment of SiC devices raises long-term reliability concerns, particularly for mission and safety critical systems due to limited field data and potential uncertainties. Therefore, it is essential to investigate progressive degradations and parameter shifts in SiC devices to develop system integrated degradation monitoring tools for self-monitoring converters, which can recognize failure precursors at the earliest stage and prevent catastrophic failures. This paper presents a comprehensive long-term reliability analysis of commercially available SiC mosfets under high temperature operation and high temperature swing, degradation related key precursors, and possible causes behind them. For this purpose, discrete SiC devices are power cycled and all datasheet parameters are recorded at certain intervals with the aid of the curve tracer. Variation of electrical parameters throughout the tests is presented in order to assess their correlation with the aging/degradation state of the switch. Among them, gate oxide charge trapping related threshold voltage drift and corresponding on state resistance variation has been observed for all samples. For some samples, bond wire heel cracking is found to be the root cause of sudden on state resistance and body diode voltage increases. The discussions regarding aging precursors are supported by failure analysis obtained through the decapsulation of failed devices. Finally, the findings are evaluated in order to define the suitability of electrical parameters as an aging precursor parameter under the light of practical implementation related issues.
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Package degradation events such as bond wire lift-up and solder crack can result in a sudden on-resistance increase.
“Package degradation events like bond wire lift-up and solder crack can result in a sudden on-resistance increase.”
From AC Power Cycling Test Setup and Condition Monitoring Tools for SiC-Based Traction Inverters (2023) · cites this paper as [69]
Gate-oxide degradation decreases the overdrive voltage (VGS - Vth) and can cause a gradual shift in on-resistance.
“At the same time, gate-oxide degradation decreases the overdrive voltage ( VGS -Vth ) and can cause a gradual shift in on-resistance [69].”
From AC Power Cycling Test Setup and Condition Monitoring Tools for SiC-Based Traction Inverters (2023) · cites this paper as [69]
On-resistance is reported as an effective precursor for package degradation monitoring.
“On-resistance is reported as an effective precursor for package degradation monitoring.”
From AC Power Cycling Test Setup and Condition Monitoring Tools for SiC-Based Traction Inverters (2023) · cites this paper as [69]
On-resistance is package and gate-oxide degradation dependent.
“However, the on-resistance is package and gateoxide degradation dependent.”
From AC Power Cycling Test Setup and Condition Monitoring Tools for SiC-Based Traction Inverters (2023) · cites this paper as [69]
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AC Power Cycling Test Setup and Condition Monitoring Tools for SiC-Based Traction Inverters
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“V th ) and can cause a gradual shift in on-resistance [69].”
BackgroundSelf-citation
- Authors
- Ugur, E., Yang, F., Pu, S., Zhao, S., & Akin, B.
- Affiliations
- The University of Texas at Dallas (US)
- Northwestern Polytechnical University (CN)
- Venue
- IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications
- Published
- 2019-05
- Volume
- 55
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 2858-2867
- ISSN
- 0093-9994 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-9367
- OpenAlex
- W2910218467
- Cited by
- 159
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 32 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 9
- FWCI
- 5.75
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- TXACE/SRC (2712.026)
- National Science Foundation (1454311)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Silicon Carbide Semiconductor Technologies
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Radiation Effects in Electronics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Semiconductor materials and devices
- Keywords
- SiC MOSFET, device degradation, high-temperature cycling, threshold voltage shift, on-resistance, failure analysis, degradation monitoring, power cycling, reliability
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