Design and Modelling of Smart Power IC Components For the Automotive Industry

In this thesis, n- and p-type power semiconductor devices used for H-bridge Direct Current (DC) motor drives in automotive application are developed. It will focus on the development of power semiconductor devices which are able to support a voltage in the range of 80V-100V with the specific on-state resistance as low as possible. N- and p-type devices investigated employing the Reduced Surface Field (RESURF) and Superjunction (SJ) concept to yield high breakdown voltage with low specific on-state resistance.

For n-type devices, four different structures were analysed. They are XtreMOSTM (Trademark of AMI, for the rest of the thesis, XtreMOS is used), advanced XtreMOS, Type1 Insulated Base Transistor (IBT) and Type2 IBT. XtreMOS shows a breakdown voltage, VBD=102V and specific on-state resistance, RDSon=36.81mohm.mm2 which breaks the ‘silicon limit’ and close to SJ limit. Nevertheless, it shows a weakness which limits the VBD to a certain value. This weakness has been overcome with the advanced XtreMOS structure. With this device VBD=113V can be achieved with a small increased in RDSon. It shows RDSon=39.31mohm.mm2. Type1 and Type2 IBT devices implement the MOS-bipolar concept to obtain the bipolar current capability. Since these two devices are designed based on the core of XtreMOS process, they show the similar VBD with XtreMOS. In term of on-state performance, it is found that Type1 IBT shows a poor output current level. On the other hand, Type1 IBT exhibits an improvement in saturation current level compare to XtreMOS.

For p-type devices, the four structures investigated are reference RESURF p-type Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (PMOS), RESURF PMOS, Modified RESURF PMOS and superjunction PMOS (SJPMOS). Among these four devices, the Modified RESURF PMOS and SJPMOS show the most promising electrical performances. The Modified RESURF PMOS shows a VBD=-91V and RDSon=207.56mohm.mm2. For the SJPMOS, VBD=-94V and RDSon=242.46mohm.mm2 are obtained.