Safe operating area for 1200-V nonlatchup bipolar-mode MOSFET's

This paper reports the safe operating area (SOA) for 1200-V nonlatchup bipolar-mode MOSFET's. The measured SOA limit, in terms of current density and drain-voltage product, reached 2.5 × 10
⁵
W/cm
²
for 125°C-case temperature and 10-µs pulse operation conditions. It exceeded even the so-called "avalanche limit" for n-p-n bipolar transistors when the measurement was carried out under 25°C-case temperature conditions. These SOA's enable device protection from an abnormally large drain-current surge.