Silicon carbide

Single event upset

Quantum mechanics

Detector

Voltage

Engineering

Reliability engineering

Aerospace engineering

Metallurgy

Materials science

Power cycling

Radiation

Radiation damage

Nuclear physics

Power MOSFET

Power (physics)

Computer science

Transistor

Physics

Nuclear engineering

Radiation hardening

Heavy ion

Testability

Static random-access memory

Reliability (semiconductor)

Composite material

Spacecraft

Catastrophic failure

Optoelectronics

Electrical engineering

MOSFET

Heavy-ion radiation can result in silicon carbide power device degradation and/or catastrophic failure. Test procedures and data interpretation must consider the impact that heavy-ion induced off-state leakage current increases will have on subsequent single-event effect susceptibility and testability. On orbit, reliable performance in the presence of increased off-state leakage currents due to cumulative ion-induced non-catastrophic single-event effects must be assured over the mission lifetime. This work presents a large body of heavy-ion test data for different diode, power MOSFET, and JFET devices. Susceptibility to single-event effects is compared between SiC and Si power devices. Initial recommendations on heavy-ion radiation test methods for silicon carbide power devices are made and radiation hardness assurance is discussed with the goal of moving one step closer to reliably getting this technology off the ground into a broad array of spacecraft and instruments that will benefit from its unique capabilities.

Space Radiation Effects on SiC Power Device Reliability