An Updated Perspective of Single Event Gate Rupture and Single Event Burnout in Power MOSFETs

Studies over the past 25 years have shown that heavy ions can trigger catastrophic failure modes in power MOSFETs [e.g., single-event gate rupture (SEGR) and single-event burnout (SEB)]. In 1996, two papers were published in a special issue of the IEEE Transaction on Nuclear Science [Johnson, Palau, Dachs, Galloway and Schrimpf, “A Review of the Techniques Used for Modeling Single-Event Effects in Power MOSFETs,” IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 546–560, April. 1996], [Titus and Wheatley, “Experimental Studies of Single-Event Gate Rupture and Burnout in Vertical Power MOSFETs,” IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 533–545, Apr. 1996]. Those two papers continue to provide excellent information and references with regard to SEB and SEGR in vertical planar MOSFETs. This paper provides updated references/information and provides an updated perspective of SEB and SEGR in vertical planar MOSFETs as well as provides references/information to other device types that exhibit SEB and SEGR effects.