edfas.org ELECTRONIC DEVICE FAILURE ANALYSIS | VOLUME 25 NO. 3 50 [GaN] Transistors using Differential Aperture X-ray Microscopy,” J. Appl. Phys., 2022, 132, p. 144503. • C. Peng, Z. Lei, H. Zhang, et al.: “Mono-Energetic Proton Induced Damages in SiC Power MOSFETs,” IEEE Trans. Device and Materials Reliability, 2023, 23, p. 64. • W. Takeuchi, E. Kagoshima, K. Sumitani, et al.: “Visualization of Local Strain in 4H-SiC Trench Metal-oxide-semiconductor Field-effect Transistor using Synchrotron Nanobeam X-ray Diffraction,” Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., 2022, 61, p. SC1072. • L. Tong, J. Yuan, Z. Zhang, et al.: “Nanoscale Subparticle Imaging of Vibrational Dynamics using Dark-field Ultrafast Transmission Electron Microscopy,” Nat. Nanotechnol., 2023, 18, p. 145. • S. Vitale and J. Sugar: “Using Xe Plasma FIB for High-Quality TEM Sample Preparation,” Microscopy and Microanalysis, 2022, 28, p. 646. GUEST EDITORIAL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 reliability similar to silicon-based components will have a bright future in power electronics applications—even if new challenges are attached to the emerging technology. One of the success factors of implementing SiC as a power device material is the chance to adopt many of the well-known device concepts and processing technologies from silicon. Thus, many of the procedures used to verify the long-term stability of silicon devices could be transferred to SiC. Nevertheless, a deeper analysis has shown that SiC-based devices require some additional and different reliability tests compared to Si-based devices. The major items which turned out to be relevant are the following: • The material itself with its specific defect structures, anisotropies, mechanical, and thermal properties. • The larger bandgap with its implications on the density and dynamics of interface traps in MOSbased devices. • Up to about 10 times higher electrical fields in operation within the material itself and at the outside inter- faces, e.g., device edges (including new edge termi- nation designs), plus its impact on oxide lifetime. • New operating modes where high voltage operation (VDS > 1000 V) and fast switching (> 50 V/ns) are combined. The listed items may have an influence on nearly all established qualification tests. Contrary to silicon-based power devices, the setup of oxide reliability tests for SiC has to also cover stability in blocking mode. Furthermore, for many existing qualification standards that specify accelerated tests, models are used to extrapolate the test data and correlate it to real world application conditions. These model parameters need to be verified for their application and accuracy with respect to SiC. Leading players in the field have addressed these items over the last 25 years during the development and production of SiC-based power devices. The keynote presentation at ISTFA 2023 will give a more detailed inside look into the current status of SiC related reliability assurance procedures, also addressing ruggedness aspects. A key aspect will be a characterization and validation scheme based on a mission profile-based stress analysis.
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