Reliability considerations for recent infineon SiC diode releases

Silicon carbide (SiC) has long been shown to be one of the most promising materials for high-voltage power semiconductor devices. New device technologies and products have lead to an ever increasing size and variety of the markets addressed by SiC. The specific material properties and the new applications served by SiC devices give rise to specific reliability requirements, reaching beyond the scope of standard tests established for silicon based devices. Here, we show details of Infineon's strategy to ensure high device reliability even under extreme operating conditions encountered in the field. E.g., an especially tailored dynamic reverse bias test shows that lnfineon's new 1200 V SiC Schottky diodes can be continuously operated at high voltage slopes of 120 V/ns under the conditions specified in this paper. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.