High-Yield 4H-SiC Thyristors for Wafer-Scale Interconnection

Abstract:

Modern power conditioning systems require large active area devices which can support high currents. Though the breakdown and thermal properties of SiC make it an excellent choice for power switching applications, active area size is currently limited due to material and processing defects. One alternative is to parallel discrete diced die to achieve large active areas. However, this increases cost and complexity through dicing, soldering, and forming multiple wire bonds. Furthermore, paralleling discrete devices increases package volume/weight and reduces power density. To overcome these issues and achieve devices of high current switching capabilities, thyristors were designed and fabricated for the purpose of wafer-scale interconnection - which avoids the need of dicing and bonding and can achieve significant current density improvement over the paralleled diced device approach. Discrete thyristors fabricated for interconnection exhibited excellent yields and good uniformity of both blocking and on-state characteristics, showing great promise for large-scale interconnection.

• Periodical: Materials Science Forum (Volumes 717-720)
• Pages: 1171-1174
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.717-720.1171
• Online since: May 2012
• Authors: Bettina Nechay, Megan Snook, Harold Hearne, Ty McNutt, Victor Veliadis, Sharon Woodruff, R.S. Howell, David Giorgi, Joseph White, Stuart Davis
• Keywords: Pulsed Power, Silicon Carbide (SiC), Thyristor, Wafer-Scale Interconnection

References

[1] S. G. Sundaresan, H. Issa, D. Veereddy, and R. Singh, Large Area > 8 kV SiC GTO Thyristors with innovative Anode-Gate designs, Mat. Sci. Forum 645-648 (2010) 1021-1024.

DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/msf.645-648.1021

[2] A. Agarwal, Q. Zhang, R. Callanan, C. Capell, A. Burk, M. O'Loughlin, J. Palmour, V. Temple, R. Stahlbush, J. Caldwell, H. O'Brien, and C. Scozzie, 9 kV 1cm2 SiC Gate Turn-Off Thyristors, Mat. Sci. Forum 645-648 (2010) 1017-1020.

DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/msf.645-648.1017

[3] D. Peters, W. Bartsch, B. Thomas, and R. Sommer, 6.5 kV SiC PiN Diodes with Improved Forward Characteristics, Mat. Sci. Forum 645-648 (2010) 901-904.

DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/msf.645-648.901

[4] M. Snook, H. Hearne, T. McNutt, V. Veliadis, B. Nechay, S. Woodruff, R. Howell, D. Giorgi, J. White, S. Davis, 11.72 cm2 SiC Wafer-scale Interconnected 1.8 kV / 64 kA PiN Diode, to be presented at the International Conference on SiC and Related Materials 2011.

DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/msf.717-720.961

[5] B. J. Baliga, Fundamentals of Power Semiconductor Devices, Springer Science and Business Media, LLC, 2008.