A New Vertical JFET Power Device for Harsh Radiation Environments

An increasing demand for power electronic devices able to be operative in harsh radiation environments is now taking place. Specifically, in High Energy Physics experiments the required power devices are expected to withstand very high radiation levels which are normally too hard for most of the available commercial solutions. In this context, a new vertical junction field effect transistor (JFET) has been designed and fabricated at the Instituto de Microelectrónica de Barcelona, Centro Nacional de Microelectrónica (IMB-CNM, CSIC). The new silicon V-JFET devices draw upon a deep-trenched technology to achieve volume conduction and low switch-off voltage, together with a moderately high voltage capability. The first batches of V-JFET prototypes have been already fabricated at the IMB-CNM clean room, and several aspects of their design, fabrication and the outcome of their characterization are summarized and discussed in this paper. Radiation hardness of the fabricated transistors have been tested both with gamma and neutron irradiations, and the results are also included in the contribution.