Analysis of Operational Degradation of SIC BJT Characteristics

Degradation in both current gain and specific on-resistance of fabricated 4H-SiC BJTs have been observed after a short period of operation. In this paper, 1200 V BJTs were stressed and factors that cause the degradation are proposed. The degradation may be attributed to the increase of the surface states density along the SiC/SiO
₂
interface, which results in an increased surface recombination current and hence the degradation of the SiC BJT.