This work investigates the effect of the doping concentration of SiC power metal-oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) under an unclamped inductive switching (UIS) condition. Switching circuits such as inverters and motor-drive circuits often face unexpected operating conditions; therefore, a UIS test is performed to assess the avalanche ruggedness of the device, and design parameters such as the doping concentration should be considered to improve the UIS characteristics. Technology computer-aided design circuit simulation results, such as the current flows during failure and electrical changes, were obtained by changing the doping concentration of each region in the SiC power MOSFET.
Novel 1.7-kV 4H-SiC trench-gate MOSFETs (TMOSFETs) with a grid pattern and a smaller specific on-resistance are proposed and demonstrated via numerical simulations. The proposed TMOSFETs provide a reduced cell pitch compared with TMOSFETs with square and stripe patterns. Although TMOSFETs with a grid pattern reduce the channel area by approximately 10%, the cell density is increased by approximately 35%. Consequently, the specific on-resistance of the grid pattern is less than that of the square and stripe patterns. The forward blocking characteristics of the grid pattern are increased by the reduced impact ionization rate at the P/N junction. As a result, the figure-of-merit (FOM) of the grid pattern is increased by approximately 33%.
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