Title :
A radiation induced failure mechanism for power semiconductor devices
Author_Institution :
Res. Inst. for Electron. Components, Bucharest, Romania
Abstract :
A failure mechanism is proposed which accounts satisfactorily for a recently discovered definitive electric short circuit between the operating power device main terminals, caused by a high energy charged particle. When such a particle crosses the space charge region of a device silicon PN junction which is reverse biased near to the avalanche breakdown voltage value, an instantaneous decrease of this value is possible and the junction may enter into a second breakdown condition, followed by its catastrophic failure
Keywords :
avalanche breakdown; elemental semiconductors; failure analysis; power semiconductor devices; semiconductor device reliability; silicon; space-charge-limited conduction; PN junction; Si; avalanche breakdown voltage value; breakdown condition; catastrophic failure; electric short circuit; high energy charged particle; power device main terminals; power semiconductor devices; radiation induced failure mechanism; space charge region; Avalanche breakdown; Breakdown voltage; Failure analysis; Power semiconductor devices; Semiconductor device doping; Semiconductor devices; Semiconductor diodes; Silicon devices; Space charge; Thyristors;
Conference_Titel :
Semiconductor Conference, 1995. CAS'95 Proceedings., 1995 International
Conference_Location :
Sinaia
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-2647-4
DOI :
10.1109/SMICND.1995.494900
