From planar to trench — Evaluation of ruggedness across various generations of power MOSFETs and implications on in-circuit performance

In this paper we compare the ruggedness of various generations of power MOSFETs using three criteria - single-pulse avalanche robustness, forward-biased safe-operation-area (FBSOA), and body-diode reverse recovery ruggedness. We observed that the trench-gate FETs are generally inferior to planar-gate counterparts in both FBSOA and avalanche capabilities; however, both trench and planar FETs show comparable performance under certain test conditions. Moreover, the trench FETs evaluated in this study are superior in reverse recovery ruggedness.