Investigation of Robustness Capability of −730 V P-Channel Vertical SiC Power MOSFET for Complementary Inverter Applications

In this paper, a p-channel vertical 4H-silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET (SiC p-MOSFET) has been fabricated successfully for the first time as a potential candidate for the complementary inverter application. The static characteristics and the robustness, including short circuit and avalanche capabilities of the p-MOSFET, are experimentally tested. Moreover, the comparison between the p-MOSFET and similar rating n-MOSFET is carried out. The short-circuit capability is 15% higher than that of the n-channel MOSFET. Furthermore, this paper also provides the physical insights into the failure mechanism during the short-circuit transient of the p- and n-MOSFET. Meanwhile, an electro-thermal analytical model is proposed to explain the thermal distribution during this transient. Last, the avalanche withstand time of the fabricated SiC p-MOSFET is experimentally demonstrated to be 27% higher than that of the n-channel one. It is concluded that the SiC p-MOSFET could be a competitive power switch applicable for high-frequency complementary inverters.