Experimental study of the effect of neutron radiation on a super-junction IGBT

Abstract A super-junction insulated gate bipolar transistor (SJ-IGBT) is distinguished from a conventional IGBT by the alternating PN columns in the drift region, which introduce a modulated electric field to improve the breakdown voltage and reduce forward conduction loss and switching loss. Focusing on the effect of fast neutron radiation on SJ-IGBTs, experimental results for the output characteristic and transfer characteristic after neutron radiation are reported in this paper for the first time. Based on experimental and simulation results, the effects of neutron radiation on different conduction modes are investigated. A SJ-IGBT comprises a metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) and bipolar-junction transistor (BJT), which means that both the displacement damage and total ionizing dose effect should be considered in the analysis. We conclude that the threshold voltage and carrier lifetime are the key parameters for the effect of neutron radiation below 10 13 cm −2 . The simulation results produce a good fit to the experimental results. For the diode-like mode and BJT-like mode, the collector current is reduced by degeneration of the carrier lifetime, while the saturation current increases with a decline in the threshold voltage in MOS-like mode.