SiC bipolar power transistors : Design and technology issues for ultimate performance

• Silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductor devices for high power are becoming more mature and are now commercially available as discrete devices. Schottky diodes have been on the market since a few years but also bipolar junction transistors (BJTs), JFETs and MOSFETs are now reaching the market. The interest is rapidly growing for these devices in high power and high temperature applications. The BJTs have low conduction losses, fast switching capability, operate in normally-off mode, have high radiation hardness, and can handle high power density.This paper will review the current state of the art in active switching device performance with special emphasis on BJTs. Device performance has been demonstrated over a wide temperature interval. A very important feature in high power switch applications is the low on-resistance of a device. Better material quality and epi processes suppress the amount of basal plane dislocations to avoid stacking fault formation generated during high current injection. This has long been a concern for bipolar SiC devices but several research reports and long term reliability measurements of pn-junctions show that the bipolar degradation problem can be solved by a fine-tuned epitaxial technique. A discussion on surface passivation control is included. Finally, an example of a power switching module is given also demonstrating the excellent paralleling capability of BJTs.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Elektroteknik och elektronik -- Annan elektroteknik och elektronik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering -- Other Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Basal plane dislocations

Bipolar junction transistor

Conduction loss

Design and technology

Device performance

Discrete devices

Epitaxial techniques

Fast switching

High currents

High power density

High power switch

High-power

Long term

Material quality

MOSFETs

Off mode

On-resistance

P-n junction

Power switching modules

Power transistors

Radiation hardness

Reliability measurements

Research reports

Schottky diodes

SiC devices

State of the art

Surface passivation

Switching devices

Temperature intervals

Bipolar transistors

Equipment

High temperature applications

MOSFET devices

Passivation

Power electronics

Schottky barrier diodes

Semiconducting silicon

Semiconductor device manufacture

Semiconductor junctions

Silicon carbide

Switching circuits

Tunnel diodes

Semiconducting silicon compounds

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