Thermal stability of SiC JFETs in conduction mode

Author

Ouaida, Remy ; Buttay, Cyril ; Riva, Raphael ; Bergogne, Dominique ; Raynaud, C. ; Morel, Florent ; Allard, Bruno

Author_Institution

Lab. Ampere, Univ. de Lyon, Villeurbanne, France

fYear

2013

fDate

2-6 Sept. 2013

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

8

Abstract

Although they can operate at elevated junction temperature, silicon carbide power devices can in some cases fail, even at low ambient temperature. This destruction mechanism, called the thermal run-away, is described in the paper. Then, the sensitivity of normally-on SiC JFETs (SiCED) to this mechanism is evaluated using a model based on experimental measurements performed over a wide temperature range (from -50°C to 300°C). It is shown that above a certain current level, run-away can occur. An experimental test bench is used to validate the modelling and explore the safe-operating area of these devices. The measurements confirm the sensitivity of the device to thermal run-away. Mitigation techniques are discussed.

Keywords

junction gate field effect transistors; silicon compounds; thermal stability; wide band gap semiconductors; JFET; SiC; conduction mode; current level; destruction mechanism; safe operating area; temperature -50 C to 300 C; thermal runaway; thermal stability; Cooling; JFETs; Resistance; Silicon carbide; Temperature; Temperature measurement; Temperature sensors; High temperature electronics; JFET; Reliability; Silicon carbide; Thermal design;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Power Electronics and Applications (EPE), 2013 15th European Conference on

Conference_Location

Lille

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/EPE.2013.6631881

Filename

6631881