Monolithic SiC Smart Power IC with Over-Temperature Protection

A monolithic silicon carbide (SiC) smart power integrated circuit (IC) with over-temperature protection is fabricated for the first time. A temperature sensor, protection circuit and gate driver are integrated on the same chip as a vertical trench-gate metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET). The temperature sensor uses SiC PN diodes. The protection circuit and gate driver are composed of SiC complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) circuits. The autonomous over-temperature protection in monolithic SiC smart power ICs is demonstrated, where the switching operation stops at abnormally high temperatures and restarts after a decrease to normal temperatures without external operations. This over-temperature protection can work at temperatures of around 300 °C, which cannot be achieved using existing silicon technology.