Short Circuit Ruggedness of 600 V SiC Trench JFETs

Silicon Carbide JFETs with low on-state resistance are suitable for a number of high power applications. The static, dynamic and short circuit characterization of 600 V SiC Trench JFETs are reported in this paper. Typical JFETs fabricated with a 1.2 μm cell pitch had an on-resistance value around 40 mΩ and blocking voltages of ~600 V across the wafer. JFETs were successfully switched with a dc link voltage of 300 V, a current of 15 A and operating temperature of 125 °C. These JFETs were subjected to a short circuit condition with duration ranging from 10 μs to 45 μs at a dc link voltage of ~300 V, and operating temperatures of 25 °C and 125 °C. The device could withstand subsequent short circuit successfully without any failure at both 25 °C and 125 °C. The short circuit current showed consistent dependency on the applied gate voltage, when it was varied from 0 V to 15 V.