A Mitigation Strategy for the Short-Circuit Degradation in SiC MOSFETs

Abstract

The demand for highly reliable SiC MOSFETs is growing in the field applications, especially considering the short-circuit conditions. With the development of faster protection, short-circuit faults may occur many times within its expected service life, which only causes short-circuit degradation, rather than destructive failure. Based on finite element method simulation and experimental waveforms, this paper investigates the thermal and mechanical behavior of SiC MOSFET during short-circuit conditions, aiming to propose a package-level strategy to mitigate this short-circuit degradation and the results indicate that the front package design with sintered copper foil could be an effective approach.