Heavy Ion Transport Modeling for Single-Event Burnout in SiC-Based Power Devices

SiC power devices have been found experimentally to burn out from heavy ion strikes with linear energy transfers as low as 2.0 MeV · cm
²
/mg. In this paper, to better understand the failure mechanisms, we study the single-event burnout (SEB) phenomenon using a unified physics model between heavy ion radiation transport and device response. High-fidelity radiation data, generated from a general purpose Monte Carlo N-particle transport code (MCNP6.2), were modeled using a double Gaussian function to take into account both the heavy ion and the delta ray contributions. SiC junction barrier Schottky (JBS) diodes underwent 3-D TCAD electrothermal simulations using the double Gaussian model. This model was compared against other heavy ion models to determine the behavior of the thermal response from a heavy ion strike. The results reveal that there is a more rapid thermal response from models using high-fidelity heavy ion radiation data than approximated models provided by TCAD simulators. Peak temperature results from high-voltage SiC JBS diodes, which agree with the experimental observation of SEBs in SiC power devices.