Duration of the High Breakdown Voltage Phase in Deep Depletion SOI LDMOS

Measurement results on the duration of the high-transient-breakdown phase for a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) laterally diffused metal-oxide-semiconductor (LDMOS) are presented. The results are important since they give experimental evidence on the practical applicability of the deep-depletion (DD) design technique, which is an innovative concept that has been recently proposed for SOI power devices. Measurements have been conducted on DD SOI LDMOS devices using a nondestructive test circuit that applies a voltage pulse with a definite amplitude and duration on the drain terminal. Measurement results show that the DD effect provides a high breakdown voltage (BV) phase that, as an example, lasts for 15 mus when the applied voltage is 150 V, which is a 65% increase over the static BV, and T =125 deg C. The sustained overvoltage and the duration of the high BV phase make the DD effect exploitable for modern power switching circuits.