Determination of failure degree of 1.2 kV SiC MOSFETs after short-circuit test using an improved test setup

Abstract

Analysis of the short-circuit characteristics of SiC metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) is very important for their practical application. This paper studies the SiC MOSFET short-circuit characteristics with an improved test setup under different conditions. A high-current Si insulated gate bipolar transistor is used as a circuit breaker in the test circuit rather than the usual short-circuit test conducted without a circuit breaker. The test platform with a circuit breaker does not influence the calculation results regarding the short-circuit withstand time and energy, but the SiC MOSFET will switch off after failure in a very short time. In addition, the degree of failure will be limited and confined to a small area, such that the damage to the chip will be clearly observable, which is significant for short-circuit failure analysis.