Short-circuit and Avalanche Robustness of SiC Power MOSFETs for Aerospace Power Converters

Silicon Carbide (SiC) power MOSFETs are emerging as powerful switches to be used where compactness and light weight of the circuit are mandatory, as in aerospace converters, because the switching speed of SiC devices is faster than their silicon (Si) counterpart and therefore smaller inductors can be used. On the other hand, the operation out of the safe operating area of power semiconductor devices becomes critical especially where device, circuit and system reliability are important. In the aerospace sector, SiC devices still lag Si IGBTs and the gap needs to be filled. In this paper, a review of the principal failure mechanisms during short circuit (SC) and unclamped inductive switching (UIS) events on SiC power MOSFETs is presented.