Radiation response of silicon carbide metal-oxide-semiconductor transistors in high dose region

Oshima, Takeshi; Yokoseki, Takashi; Murata, Koichi; Matsuda, Takuma; Mitomo, Satoshi; Abe, Hiroshi; Makino, Takahiro; Onoda, Shinobu; Hijikata, Yasuto*; Tanaka, Yuki*; Kandori, Mikio*; Okubo, Shuichi*; Yoshie, Toru*

In this study, we report the effects of -ray irradiation and subsequent annealing on the electrical characteristics of vertical structure power 4H Silicon Carbide (SiC) Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFETs) with the blocking voltage of 1200 V. The MOSFETs were irradiated with -rays up to 1.2 MGy in a N atmosphere at room temperature (RT). During the irradiation, no bias was applied to each electrode of the MOSFETs. After the irradiation, the MOSFETs were kept at RT for 240 h to investigate the stability of their degraded characteristics. Then, the irradiated MOSFETs were annealed up to 360 C in the atmosphere. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the MOSFETs were measured at RT. By 1.2 MGy irradiation, the shift of threshold voltage (V) for the MOSFETs was -3.39 V. After RT preservation for 240 h, MOSFETs showed no significant recovery in V. By annealing up to 360 C, the MOSFETs showed remarkable recovery, and the values of V become 91 % of the initial values. Those results indicate that the degraded characteristics of SiC MOSFETs can be recovered by thermal annealing at 360 C.