Tolerance Against Terrestrial Neutron-Induced Single-Event Burnout in SiC MOSFETs

SEB tolerance of SiC power MOSFETs against terrestrial neutrons is studied. It is shown that the failure probability increases exponentially with applied voltage and is several orders of magnitude lower than that of a Si MOSFET. The energetic secondary carbon atoms generated by the nuclear reactions and the collisions between the terrestrial neutrons and the lattice atoms of SiC devices may play important role in the SEB triggering mechanism in SiC power devices.