Single event burnout in power diodes: Mechanisms and models

Power electronic devices are susceptible to catastrophic failures when they are exposed to energetic particles; the most serious failure mechanism is single event burnout (SEB). SEB is a widely recognized problem for space applications, but it also may affect devices in terrestrial applications. This phenomenon has been studied in detail for power MOSFETs, but much less is known about the mechanisms responsible for SEB in power diodes. This paper reviews the current state-of-knowledge of power-diode vulnerability to SEB, based on both experimental and simulation results. It is shown that present models are limited by the lack of detailed descriptions of thermal processes that lead to physical failure.