Industrial approach to the chip and package reliability of SiC MOSFETs (Invited)

SiC-based power MOSFETs have become the major challengers for state-of-the-art Si technology in numerous power electronics applications. In ABB's portfolio, the list of examples includes motor drives, renewable energy conversion, battery energy storage systems and uninterruptable power supplies. The performance advantages of the wide-band-gap semiconductor are multiple and allow a clear size-to-cost benefit at the system level, making the introduction of SiC into selected products meaningful. To fully profit from the technology, the reliability level needs to be at least equivalent to the legacy Si-based solutions. However, the new technology requires new tests that address the relevant and novel failure mechanisms. The approach used by ABB is discussed in this paper. As part of the approach, various tests and exemplary results are presented, such as high voltage, high temperature tests, high dV / dt tests, avalanche ruggedness, repetitive surge current operation and dedicated gate oxide tests, as well as packaging related tests such as power cycling. The results show that manufacturers have gained control over some of the earlier limitations in first generation SiC devices, and that the available standards must evolve to reflect the SiC specific requirements compared to the previous semiconductor technology.