Substantial Improvement of the Short-circuit Capability of a 1.2 kV SiC MOSFET by a HfO2/SiO2 Ferroelectric Gate Stack

State-of-the-art Silicon Carbide (SiC) Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFETs) are required to meet strict constraints on short-circuit capability, that are challenging to achieve due to the limited volume of the device compared to the silicon counterpart. This paper presents a novel device concept for a 1.2 kV SiC MOSFET that harnesses the potential of a composite silicon oxide/ferroelectric gate stack. Simple modeling suggests that the Curie-Weiss dependence of the dielectric constant of the ferroelectric layer can counterbalance the current increase due to the temperature during short-circuit. TCAD simulations demonstrate a substantial short-circuit ruggedness improvement since the maximum temperature in the device during short circuit events is lower with respect to a reference device with a standard oxide gate dielectric by a factor ½.