RESEARCH ARTICLE | DECEMBER 26 2020

Determination of failure degree of 1.2 kV SiC MOSFETs after

short-circuit test using an improved test setup
Special Collection: Wide Bandgap (WBG) Semiconductors: from Fundamentals to Applications

Shen Diao; Jun Sun; Ziwei Zhou; Zhenzhong Zhang; Adolf Schöner; Zedong Zheng; Weiwei He 

Nanotechnology and Precision Engineering 3, 235–240 (2020)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.npe.2020.12.002

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 Nanotechnology and Precision Engineering 3 (2020) 235–240

Nanotechnology and Precision Engineering

Determination of failure degree of 1.2 kV SiC MOSFETs after short-circuit test using an
improved test setup
Shen Diao a, Jun Sun a, Ziwei Zhou a, Zhenzhong Zhang a, Adolf Schöner a, Zedong Zheng b, Weiwei He a,⁎
a
Research and Development Department, Shenzhen BASiC Semiconductor Ltd., Shenzhen 518000, China
b
Dept. Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Available online 26 December 2020 Analysis of the short-circuit characteristics of SiC metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs)
is very important for their practical application. This paper studies the SiC MOSFET short-circuit characteristics
with an improved test setup under different conditions. A high-current Si insulated gate bipolar transistor is
Keywords: used as a circuit breaker in the test circuit rather than the usual short-circuit test conducted without a circuit
SiC MOSFET breaker. The test platform with a circuit breaker does not influence the calculation results regarding the short-
Short-circuit test circuit withstand time and energy, but the SiC MOSFET will switch off after failure in a very short time. In addition,
Failure analysis the degree of failure will be limited and confined to a small area, such that the damage to the chip will be clearly
observable, which is significant for short-circuit failure analysis.

01 September 2023 10:57:03

Copyright © 2020 Tianjin University. Publishing Service by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction circuit withstand time with excellent reliability. During application,

Silicon carbide (SiC) power devices are being widely applied in high-
voltage, high-frequency applications (e.g., motor driver, solar inverter,
switch mode power supply), which increases the necessity of their
safe and reliable performance.1,2 Compared with silicon (Si) insulated
gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), SiC metal-oxide-semiconductor field-
effect transistors (MOSFETs) have a smaller chip size and higher current
density.3,4 Thus, SiC MOSFETs have a shorter short-circuit withstand
time than Si IGBTs, which requires a shorter response time to ensure
safety.
In recent years, many investigations have been conducted on SiC
MOSFETs, including theoretical, modeling, and experimental studies. A
physically based model of the SiC MOSFET has been used to simulate a
short-circuit safe operating area. The electro-thermal effect was also ap-
plied in a junction temperature simulation. Good agreement was ob-
served for drain current waveforms and failure times under varying
conditions.5 In addition, the reliability of the short-circuit characteristics
of commercial SiC MOSFETs has been tested.6 During the short-circuit
test, the measured gate leakage current and threshold voltage values in-
dicated the occurrence of damage to the gate oxide. However, overall,
research has focused mainly on waveforms and few ultimate short-
circuit tests have been reported.
In this paper, we present the results of a series of short-circuit tests
under different conditions and SiC MOSFETs. Unlike the SiC MOSFET,
the Si IGBT has a more mature fabrication process and a longer short-
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: hww@basicsemi.com (W. He).
IGBTs in a series with higher gate resistance turn off slowly, which can
decrease the effects of the IGBT current tail. If more failure information
from the chip is desired, we suggest the use of Si IGBTs as a circuit
breaker in a series with the device under test (DUT) in the test circuit.
By doing so, the damage sustained by the failed devices can be restricted
to a small area for observation by optical microscopy or hotspot analysis.
The resulting samples are thus more meaningful for further research re-
garding the failure mechanism at the gate area.7,8
2. Experimental work
2.1. Characterization platform
In this work, two kinds of typical devices packaged in TO-247-3 from
BASiC Semiconductor Ltd. are measured in a short-circuit test. Devices
with different on-resistance (RDS(on)) values and current ratings be-
cause of their different chip sizes are chosen for comparison with the
typical short-circuit characteristics under the same conditions. Table 1
lists the key parameters of the devices and Figs. 1(a) and 1(b) show
the output characteristics of the DUTs at different gate voltages (VGS).
In addition, Si IGBTs manufactured by Infineon, which have a higher
current rating and longer short-circuit withstand time, are applied in
the circuit as a circuit breaker, the output characteristics of which are
shown in Fig. 1(c). Fig. 2 shows the threshold voltages at specified
drain-source current (IDS) of MOSFET and collector-emitter current
(ICE) of IGBT.
The short-circuit characteristics of discrete SiC MOSFETs are evalu-
ated on the platform shown in Fig. 3. The gate voltage of the DUTs and

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.npe.2020.12.002
2589-5540/Copyright © 2020 Tianjin University. Publishing Service by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
S. Diao, J. Sun, Z. Zhou et al. Nanotechnology and Precision Engineering 3 (2020) 235–240

Table 1
Key parameters of devices in the short-circuit test.

Devices Device type RDS(on) (mΩ) Threshold voltage (V) Voltage rating (V) Current rating (A) Drive voltage (V)

A SiC MOSFET 160 2.9 1200 10 20

@IDS = 2.5 mA
B SiC MOSFET 80 3 1200 20 20
@IDS = 5 mA
C Si IGBT \ 5.8 1200 40 15
@ICE = 1.5 mA

IGBTs are controlled by the gate driver controllers 1EDI20H12AH from
Infineon and SID1182K from Power Integrations, respectively. The
short-circuit waveforms are measured at various drain voltages (VDS)
and short-circuit pulse widths but the same gate voltage (VGS) and
gate resistance (RG). High-voltage differential probes are used to test
the drain voltage and high-frequency current probes are used to mea-
sure the short-circuit current.
2.2. Short-circuit test waveforms
In this short-circuit test, we used Si IGBTs with better short-circuit
current capability, which can prevent uncontrollable surges in the
current. Fig. 4(a) shows the normal short-circuit test waveforms of the
SiC MOSFET in Device A.9 Fig. 4(b) shows the waveforms of the short-
circuit test with a circuit breaker for the DUT and IGBTs in Device B.
This test can be divided into five periods.
Period A: Both the DUT and IGBTs are turned off, with the DC bus
voltage on at 800 V. Due to the different drift-layer resistances of the de-
vices, the drain voltage of the DUT (VDS.MOSFET) is smaller than the DC
bus voltage.
Period B: The turn-on signal for IGBTs is 1 μs earlier than that of the
DUT. When the IGBTs are switched on, the collector voltage of the IGBT
(VCE.IGBT) falls to minimum and the VDS.MOSFET increases to the DC bus volt-
age under the same starting conditions of the typical test shown in Fig. 4(a).

20
(a)
VGS=18 V VGS=14 V

01 September 2023 10:57:03

15 V =20 V
GS VGS=16 V
VGS=12 V
IDS (A)

10

VGS=10 V
5

0
0 2 4 6 8 10
VDS (V)

40 100
(b) (c)
VGS=16 V VGE=15 V
80 VGE=13 V
30 VGS=18 V
VGE=17 V
VGS=14 V
VGS=20 V
60
ICE (A)
IDS (A)

VGE=11 V
20
VGS=12 V 40

10
20
VGS=10 V VGE=9 V

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
VDS (V) VCE (V)

Fig. 1. Output characteristics of (a) Device A, (b) Device B, and (c) Device C at room temperature.

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S. Diao, J. Sun, Z. Zhou et al. Nanotechnology and Precision Engineering 3 (2020) 235–240

VGS.MOSFET
40 1000 250
5 VDS.MOSFET
(a)
IDS
30 800 200
4

Gate Voltage (V)

Drain Current (A)

Drain Voltage (V)
20 600 150
IDS, ICE (mA)

3 Device B Device C
10 400 100

2 Device A
0 200 50
B C D

1 -10 0 0
0.0 2.0x10-6 4.0x10-6 6.0x10-6 8.0x10-6
Time (s)
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 VGS.MOSFET
50 VDS.MOSFET 700 1200
VGS, VGE (V) IDS-ICE
(b)
40 VGE.IGBT 600 1000
VCE.IGBT
Fig. 2. Threshold voltages of Device A, Device B, and Device C at room temperature.

Drain Current (A)

Drain Voltage (V)

30 500 800

Gate Voltage (V) 20 400 600

Period C: The DUT is switched on and maintains the short-circuit sta-
tus. The drain current of the DUT (IDS) increases to its peak value as it is 10 300 400
in a high-voltage saturation area, then decreases later due to the in-
crease in the junction temperature. Both tests show the same process 0 200 200

01 September 2023 10:57:03

of change in the current for the different device types with different
-10 100 0
short-circuit test platforms. Thus, the calculation of the short-circuit en-
ergy is not affected by the novel test platform. -20 0 -200
Period D: When the DUT is switched off but fails with increasing cur- A B C D E
rent and voltage oscillations, the increasing VCE.IGBT is detected and the -30 -100 -400
-3.0x10-6 0.0 3.0x10-6 6.0x10-6 9.0x10-6 1.2x10-5
gate driver controller turns the IGBTs off within a short period of time.
The increasing power of the DUT can be maintained within the required Time (s)
limits quickly to prevent continuous destruction. However, in the test cir-
cuit without a circuit breaker, the current soars immediately, which is the Fig. 4. Short-circuit waveforms after failure of the DUTs. (a) Short-circuit test results
scenario that occurs prior to explosion of the device by thermal runaway. without IGBTs as circuit breaker; (b) short-circuit test results with IGBTs as circuit breaker.

Fig. 3. Schematic (a) and photo (b) of the test bench used in the short-circuit test.

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S. Diao, J. Sun, Z. Zhou et al. Nanotechnology and Precision Engineering 3 (2020) 235–240

140 250
(a) VDS=200V (b) VDS=200V
VDS=400V VDS=400V
120
VDS=600V 200 VDS=600V
VDS=800V VDS=800V
100
Drain Current (A)

Drain Current (A)

150
80

60 100

40
50
20
0
0

-20 -50
-1.0x10-6 0.0 1.0x10-6 2.0x10-6 3.0x10-6 4.0x10-6 0.0 2.0x10-6 4.0x10-6 6.0x10-6
Time (s) Time (s)

Fig. 5. Short-circuit current waveforms under different VDS of (a) Device A and (b) Device B.

Period E: Lastly, the DUT turns off safely as the VDS.MOSFET and VGS.
MOSFET have been limited to their minimum values. The IGBT is
turned on for a short time by the gate driver controller. However,
this is a much shorter time than the short circuit withstand time of
Si IGBT. There is no dangerous for the circuit breaker. And the
whole test is accomplished safely with complete test waveforms
obtained.
The comparison of the proposed test platform with the common
short-circuit test reveals that use of the Si IGBT as a circuit breaker
voltages, and Fig. 6 presents the current waveforms. With increases in
the DC bus voltage, both the short-circuit withstand time and critical en-
ergy decrease when the junction temperature rapidly increases.
Optical microscopy and hotspot analysis of the devices were per-
formed next. Regarding the results obtained for Devices B1 and B2 in
an ultimate test with VDS = 400 V and VDS = 600 V, respectively, the
breakdown voltages are observed to decrease to 200 V and the hotspot
test indicates the presence of damage, as shown in Figs. 7(a) and 7(b).12
For the ultimate test of Device B3, the VDS increased to 800 V and the

01 September 2023 10:57:03

does not influence the test conditions or the short-circuit test wave- chip burned, as shown in Fig. 7(c), which reveals a more catastrophic
forms. The SiC MOSFET after short-circuit failure maintains its usefulness failure than those of Devices B1 and B2.
for further research by the protection of the circuit breaker. Therefore, Based on the results of the above experiments, the DUTs are deter-
we suggest the use of Si IGBTs in the circuit as a protection measure for mined to fail because of the high temperature generated by the high
both the DUTs and the circuit.10,11 short-circuit current and high voltage. The metal melted at tempera-
tures higher than 933 K, but the degree of failure was limited to a low
3. Results and discussion grade. In the short-circuit test under lower voltage, the degree of dam-
age was limited to a single hotspot. Thus, further investigation of the
3.1. Circuit waveforms with different VDS failure mechanism of the gate oxide area can be made using the single
hotspot sample.13,14
Fig. 5 shows the short-circuit current waveforms for Devices A and B
under different VDS values with the improved test circuit. Both devices
are tested at VGS = 20 V and RG = 2.2 Ω. With increases in the VDS, 300
the saturation current increases higher and faster. The peak currents
Device B1
are 120 A and 220 A, which are 12 and 11 times the normal continuous
250 Device B2
current ratings, respectively. The short-circuit protection system is a
Device B3
critical factor when working with higher voltages. Device B with the
200
Drain Current (A)

higher current is used in the next experiment.

3.2. Short-circuit failure hotspot 150

Table 2 shows the short-circuit characteristics of three B-type de- 100

vices, which are measured on the novel test bench at various DC bus
50

Table 2
Summary of the short-circuit characteristics of B-type devices. 0

Devices Drain Short-circuit Short-circuit Damage

voltage time (μs) energy (J) degree -50
0 1x10-5 2x10-5 3x10-5 4x10-5
(V)

B1 400 21 1.4 Hotspot Time (s)

B2 600 9 1 Hotspot
B3 800 5 0.8 Burned
Fig. 6. Short-circuit current waveforms of Devices B1, B2, and B3.

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S. Diao, J. Sun, Z. Zhou et al. Nanotechnology and Precision Engineering 3 (2020) 235–240

01 September 2023 10:57:03

Fig. 7. Optical microscopic images from the hotspot tests of (a) Device B1, (b) Device B2, and (c) Device B3 after the ultimate test.

4. Conclusions
In this paper, we presented the results of short-circuit tests con-
ducted under different conditions and the failure performances of de-
vices manufactured by BASiC Semiconductor Ltd. The short-circuit
peak current of SiC MOSFETs was determined to be approximately 12
times the nominal continuous current rating and the short-circuit with-
stand time is longer than 4 μs. As the VDS is gradually increased, the
short-circuit withstand time and critical energy decrease due to the
rapid increase in power. The damage regions of the failed devices tested
with a circuit breaker are restricted to a single hotspot or a small area.
Therefore, when further experimental analysis is necessary regarding
the short-circuit capacity and device failure, the use of Si IGBTs is sug-
gested as a circuit breaker.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
10. Shi Y, Xie R, Wang L, et al. Switching characterization and short-circuit protection of
Acknowledgments
11. Sasagawa K, Abe Y, Matsuse K. Study on gate-controlled protection methods for
This work was supported by the Shenzhen Science and Technology
Program [Grant No. KQTD2017033016491218].
12. Liu J, Zhang G, Wang B, et al. Gate failure physics of SiC MOSFETs under short-circuit
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S. Diao, J. Sun, Z. Zhou et al. Nanotechnology and Precision Engineering 3 (2020) 235–240

Shen Diao, Research and Development Department, Shenzhen Jun Sun, Research and Development Department, Shenzhen
BASiC Semiconductor Ltd., China. His research interests include BASiC Semiconductor Ltd., China. His research interests in-
the dynamic characteristics of SiC MOSFET and the Spice model- clude chip design and the fabrication of SiC power devices.
ing of SiC power devices.

Ziwei Zhou, Research and Development Department,

Weiwei He, Research and Development Department,
Shenzhen BASiC Semiconductor Ltd., China. Her research in-
Shenzhen BASiC Semiconductor Ltd., China. His research in-
terests include the material characteristics of 4H-SiC and the
terests include high-power semiconductor devices such as
failure analysis of power devices.
IGBTs and MOSFETs, and their applications.

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