Reliability of SiC power devices and its influence on their commercialization - review, status, and remaining issues

Abstract

The following paper will give an overview about the main reliability aspects of silicon carbide power devices. After a brief review of the key device concepts it covers reliability topics of bipolar devices, Schottky diodes, metal oxide semiconductor field effect devices, and junction field effect devices. Special attention is paid to the influence of the different reliability topics on the commercialization of the different device types. It will be shown that for some device types the reliability is at a very high level being not hampering commercialization (e.g. Schottky diodes or junction field effect devices) whereas other devices concepts still need improvement until commercialization (e.g. bipolar devices).