Journal of Power Electronics

The Korean Institute of Power Electronics (전력전자학회)
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SiC IGBT degradation mechanism investigation under HV-H3TRB tests

  • Ziming Wu (State Key Laboratory of Precision Electronic Manufacturing Technology and Equipment, Guangdong University of Technology) ;
  • Zongbei Dai (Science and Technology On Reliability Physics and Application of Electronic Component Laboratory, No. 5 Electronics Research Institute of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) ;
  • Jian Zhou (Science and Technology On Reliability Physics and Application of Electronic Component Laboratory, No. 5 Electronics Research Institute of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) ;
  • Huafeng Dong (School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology) ;
  • Wencan Wang (School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology) ;
  • Feiwan Xie (School of International Education, Guangdong University of Technology) ;
  • Haoran Wang (Three Gorges Intelligent, Industrial Control Technology Company) ;
  • Jiahui Yan (Science and Technology On Reliability Physics and Application of Electronic Component Laboratory, No. 5 Electronics Research Institute of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) ;
  • Xiyu Chen (Science and Technology On Reliability Physics and Application of Electronic Component Laboratory, No. 5 Electronics Research Institute of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) ;
  • Shaohua Yang (Science and Technology On Reliability Physics and Application of Electronic Component Laboratory, No. 5 Electronics Research Institute of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) ;
  • Fugen Wu (State Key Laboratory of Precision Electronic Manufacturing Technology and Equipment, Guangdong University of Technology)
  • Received : 2023.06.04
  • Accepted : 2023.10.30
  • Published : 2024.02.20
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Abstract

The high voltage-high humidity-high temperature reverse bias (HV-H3TRB) test was utilized to evaluate the reliability of silicon carbide insulated gate bipolar transistors (SiC IGBTs). Moisture invasion often induces termination/passivation and metal corrosion. Therefore, the HV-H3TRB test is generally used to assess termination / passivation robustness. However, under the HV-H3TRB test conditions, gate quality degradation may occur. In this study, the dominant degradation mechanism of SiC IGBTs was investigated. The changes of the most sensitive static characteristics (e.g., threshold voltage, breakdown voltage, and leakage current) were recorded. The threshold voltage decreased and leakage current increased substantially after>1000 h of HV-H3TRB tests under 85 ℃/85% RH climate conditions. Capacitance-voltage (C-V) curve measurements indicated that the mobile ions at the SiC/SiO2 interface or in the gate oxide likely caused the threshold-voltage instability in the SiC IGBTs after the HV-H3TRB tests. This instability can be recovered by applying a negative gate bias. Subsequent failure analysis confirmed no corrosion of metals or termination/passivation in the device, which indicates the robustness of the passivation (consisting of phosphor-silicate glass and Si3N4). Therefore, the gate quality appears to be a significant reliability risk for SiC IGBTs under high humidity, high temperature, and high voltage conditions.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work has been funded by the Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province under Grant 2022B0701180002, Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (No. 2021A1515110679), Guangzhou Basic and Applied Basic Research Project (No. 202201011323 and No. 202201010868). Special thanks go to Dr. S. Yang for the article revision.

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