Snapback and safe operating area of LDMOS transistors

This paper deals with the measurement and prediction of the SOA boundary and the accompanying device physics. Results are given for n-channel LDMOS transistors having a self-aligned body diffusion. LDMOS SOA has been discussed previously in a number of papers, however, there is still a need for improving the overall understanding of this rather complicated subject. To be complete, thermal effects should also be included in the definition of SOA, however, these can be treated separately and we focus here on the "electrical SOA", which is defined by the Id-Vds boundary where snapback occurs.