Reliability Study of Various Edge Terminations of Silicon Carbide Power Devices Using Simulation Methods

Reliability is one of the major concerns for SiC devices. A proper edge termination structure would enable SiC devices to operate at designed voltages because it mitigates the electric field aggregation caused by the cylindrical or spherical junctions. However, a great number of research has been reported on studying the optimization of edge terminations to achieve higher breakdown voltage (BV). In contrast, research on the impact of edge termination design on devices' reliability remains limited. In this work, floating field ring (FFR), single-zone junction termination extension (SZ-JTE), ring-assisted JTE (RA-JTE), multi-floating zone JTE (MFZ-JTE), and Hybrid-JTE are studied. Their reliability performance is evaluated by comparing the BV stability of these termination designs under different implantation doses, critical dimension (CD) deviations, and fixed SiC/SiO2 interface charge through technology computer-aided design (TCAD) simulations. Among all the edge terminations listed, Hybrid-JTE has exhibited a champion reliability.