Extended Qualification of Power MOSFET to Fulfill Today's Requirements of Automotive Applications

This paper focuses on the requirements of electronic systems in automotive applications in terms of reliability and quality. As one of the most common devices in such applications for switching electronic loads, the power MOSFET, is investigated in detail. Today's qualification procedure for discrete devices according to AEC Q101 [1] will be explained and how this correlates to the stress of the device in the application. It will be pointed out what additional tests for “extended qualification” should be made to deal with critical failure modes reducing overly conservative safety margins and preventing excessive costs on the component side. The tests will be explained and the results presented.