Non-Destructive Screening for Thermal Second Breakdown

The feasibility of developing nondestructive screening techniques to determine the second breakdown vulnerability of semiconductor devices at submicrosecond pulse conditions has been demonstrated. In addition, it has been shownl that second breakdown can be nondestructively initiated under certain current limiting conditions without causing degradation in device operating characteristics or device second breakdown vulnerability level to subsequent pulses of electrical energy. A low energy current impulse damage mechanism at second breakdown initiation has also been observed. The experimental investigations were performed using 1N4148 diodes fabricated with various junction areas and a fixed diffusion depth. The complete results of this work are documented in Reference 1.