AND8199 [ONSEMI]

THERMAL STABILITY OF MOSFETS; MOSFET的热稳定性
AND8199
型号: AND8199
厂家: ONSEMI    ONSEMI
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THERMAL STABILITY OF MOSFETS
MOSFET的热稳定性

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AND8199  
Thermal Stability of  
MOSFETs  
Prepared by: Alan Ball  
ON Semiconductor  
Application Engineering Manager  
http://onsemi.com  
A variety of applications use hotswap controllers, often  
to increase the reliability of a system. However, a failure in  
the hotswap circuit would defeat that purpose. When you  
use MOSFETs in their active region to control current, such  
as you would for a controller that operates in a  
constantcurrent mode of operation, they have an inherent  
failure mechanism. In this mode, the MOSFET can get  
hot spots and fail, long before the device exceeds its  
Safe Operating Area (SOA) ratings.  
Engineers have long understood that MOSFETs are  
positive temperature coefficient devices. Therefore, as the  
temperature of the device increases, the resistance increases.  
In other words, higher temperatures result in lower currents.  
This fact is important if you want to operate MOSFETs in  
parallel. With a good thermal path between devices, the  
positive temperature coefficient reduces the current in the  
hottest device and forces more of it to flow in the cooler  
device, thereby avoiding thermal runaway.  
the same application of the positive temperature coefficient  
applies. In this case, the thermal path between the cells is  
better than that of separate packaged devices, because the  
cells are all on the same die.  
As the current density of a small group of cells increases,  
those cells heat up, increasing the resistivity of those cells  
and forcing current to flow in neighboring cells, which  
minimizes the thermal gradient and avoids hot spots. This  
process is an essential physical tenet that allows the parallel  
array of cells to function reliably.  
If the MOSFET exhibits a negative thermal coefficient,  
today’s parallel cell structure would cause serious reliability  
issues. In fact, in some modes of operation, the thermal  
coefficient goes negative. You can easily understand this  
phenomenon by looking at the transconductance curves for  
a FET device (refer to Reference 1).  
A typical set of transconductance curves clearly  
demonstrates this effect as shown by Figure 1. Below are  
curves from three typical devices used in  
hot swap applications.  
Engineers often think of a MOSFET as a single power  
transistor, but it is a collection of thousands of tiny power  
FET cells connected in parallel. In terms of sharing current,  
100  
24  
V
10 V  
DS  
20  
16  
12  
8
T = 175°C  
J
T = 25°C  
J
T = 25°C  
J
4
V
= 50 V  
DS  
T = 55°C  
T = 100°C  
J
J
20 ms = Pulse Width  
7.0 8.0  
, GATETOSOURCE VOLTAGE (V)  
10  
4.0  
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
5.0  
6.0  
V
, GATETOSOURCE VOLTAGE (V)  
V
GS  
GS  
Figure 1. Transfer Characteristics for NTD12N10  
Figure 2. International Rectifier IRF530  
Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC, 2005  
1
Publication Order Number:  
AND8199/D  
January, 2005 Rev. 0  
 
AND8199  
40°  
25°  
125°  
10  
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
50  
40  
30  
20  
10  
0
Pulse Duration = 80 ms  
Duty Cycle = 0.5% Maximum  
V
= 15 V  
DD  
Point of Inflection  
T = 25°C  
J
125°  
40°  
T = 100°C  
J
T = 55°C  
J
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10  
V
V
GS  
V
+
GS  
2
3
4
5
6
GS  
V
, GATETOSOURCE VOLTAGE (V)  
GS  
Figure 3. Fairchild HUF75631SK8  
Figure 4. Typical Transconductance Curve  
All three devices shown have one thing in common:  
a point of inflection at which the temperature coefficient is  
zero. At greater gatetosource voltages, the coefficient is  
positive, and, at lower gatetosource voltages it is negative.  
Figure 4 illustrates the change from negative to positive.  
At a gatetosource voltage greater than that of the  
The thermalrunaway situation occurs when you use large  
devices at low currentlimit settings. Even though it would  
appear to be desirable to use a very large MOSFET for an  
application such as a hot swap and limit it to a low current,  
it may be an inappropriate approach. Use of  
a
verylowonresistance device offers low losses for  
steadystate operation but may cause the device to fail  
during a short circuit or an overload.  
inflection point (V +), a positive temperature coefficient  
GS  
exists. At this gate voltage, the drain conducts more than  
9.0 A of current. However, at 125°C the drain current  
reduces to less than 7.0 A. The arrow at the left of Figure 4,  
which shows the current decreasing due to an increase in  
temperature, indicates this drop.  
One way to overcome this problem is to directly sense the  
die temperature of the MOSFET by integrating the  
MOSFET with the controller using a monolithic approach.  
ON Semiconductor takes this approach with its new line of  
hotswap ICs. In this case, the temperature can be sensed  
directly on the FET die. The location of the sense element on  
the die is critical for ensured protection of the device. If a hot  
spot occurs too far from the sense location, the device may  
be unable to protect itself.  
Discrete hotswap controllers employ a number of  
protection schemes. Thermal instability is an issue only if  
the controller can go into a constantcurrent mode of  
operation. Some protection circuits simply shut off the  
MOSFET switch if a number of conditions indicate a  
dangerous area of operation. Controllers that use a  
constantcurrent method of protection can use timers or  
other schemes along with the currentlimit circuit to reduce  
the risk of failure.  
At a gatetosource voltage below the inflection point  
(V ) a negative temperature coefficient exists. At 40°C,  
GS  
the drain current is close to zero. However, at 125°C, the  
drain current is more than 1.0 A. A second arrow at the left  
of Figure 4 indicates this relationship, and the current rises  
due to an increase in temperature.  
The implication is that when you are controlling the FET  
with a gatetosource voltage below the inflection point,  
thermal runaway can occur. When one cell or a small group  
of cells becomes hotter than the surrounding cells, they tend  
to conduct more current. This situation, in turn, creates more  
heat, which allows more current to flow. These cells can pull  
a large amount of current and, if not limited in time, can  
cause the device to fail.  
This situation is similar to the wellknown phenomenon  
of secondary breakdown that occurs in bipolar transistors  
except that a bipolar junction transistor is a single device,  
and you can take steps to avoid its destruction. A power  
MOSFET contains thousands of parallel devices that are  
internal to the die, and you cannot individually protect them.  
If hot spots occur, the SOA characteristics of the heavily  
conducting cells differ greatly from those of the marginally  
conducting cells.  
Because system efficiency is an important parameter, it is  
tempting to use the largest MOSFET possible to reduce  
losses. It is important to keep in mind, however, that this  
approach may require you to make a tradeoff with the  
system reliability if you are not mindful of the possible  
thermal instability. You can reliably use a large power device  
at a low current limit level if you handle it properly.  
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AND8199  
Reference  
1. Thermal Instability of Low Voltage PowerMOSFETs. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 15, No. 3, May  
2000, Alfio Consoli et al.  
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AND8199/D  

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