Displacement damage-induced catastrophic second breakdown in silicon carbide Schottky power diodes

Abstract

A novel catastrophic breakdown mode in reverse biased silicon carbide diodes has been seen for particles that are too low in LET to induce SEB, however SEB-like events were seen from particles of higher LET. The low LET breakdown mechanism correlates with second breakdown in diodes due to increased leakage and assisted charge injection from incident particles. Percolation theory was used to predict some basic responses of the devices.