Diode Parameters Design Simulation and Experimental Validation against Silver Migration Phenomena in High Voltage Switching Application

Metallic Electro Chemical Migration (ECM) is a phenomenon has long been recognized as a significant failure pathway of electronic devices. In this work, silver ECM was investigated and analyzed in commercial silicon power diodes. Dedicated test procedures have been performed in order to study the Ag ECM triggering and evolution. 2D TCAD simulations were used to analyze the ECM phenomena at the diode edge termination, identifying design solutions able to mitigate such effect. Finally, the proposed device has been experimentally validated and results highlight a significant reduction of devices failure.