A novel four-terminal SiC MOSFET with improved single-event effect performance

Abstract This paper proposes a novel Four-Terminal SiC MOSFET (4 T-MOSFET) with excellent radiation resistance characteristics and flexible operable modes for the first time. The added control electrode can not only reduce the drain voltage coupling to the gate oxide during irradiation, but also provide an additional path to extract accumulated holes below the gate oxide induced by heavy ions, thus reducing transient electric field in the gate oxide and enhancing single-event gate rupture tolerance of 4 T-MOSFET. Meanwhile, the single-event burnout (SEB) performance is also improved. Results show that the transient peak electric field in the gate oxide of the 4 T-MOSFET is reduced by up to 84.3% compared to conventional SiC MOSFET (CN-MOSFET) at V DS = 400 V and V GS = −20 V. The SEB threshold voltage can increase by 40 V compared to CN-MOSFET. Moreover, the peak gate oxide electric field, SEB tolerance, and breakdown voltage of 4 T-MOSFET will change accordingly when adjusting control-to-source voltage ( V CS ), realizing flexible operable modes and meeting the application of different radiation environments for SiC MOSFETs.