Damage accumulation in GaN GITs exposed to repetitive short-circuit

Short-circuit withstand capability is one of the key elements when it comes to the selection of semiconductor power devices in different mainstream power electronics applications (i.e industrial, e-mobility etc). Alongside the single pulse SC robustness, aging of power devices is also of concern when subjected to repetitive SC stress since devices may experience such transient events relatively quite frequently during their lifetime. This paper investigates the effect of repetitive short-circuit robustness on 600 V rated commercially available GaN gate injection transistors (GITs). In particular, monitors of device degradation as stress accumulates on the device under test (DUT) have been reiterated in this paper. Moreover, the effect of SC energy and the applied drain-source bias (VDS) during SC have also been investigated. Lastly, de-capsulation of the degraded devices were also performed for microscopic analysis.