Cosmic Radiation Effects on High-Voltage Semiconductors in Automotive Onboard Chargers

Application Note Overview

This application note explains the effect of cosmic radiation on HV power semiconductors, describes the influencing factors of the application on the failure rate, and gives concrete results of robustness validation based on a generic mission profile for a bi-directional onboard-charger (OBC).

Single-event burnouts (SEBs) caused by cosmic radiation contribute to the random failure rate in HV MOSFETs. Even though the event is random, its probability can be predicted by knowing the application conditions. In this resource you'll get an introduction to SEBs and learn about a basic approach to estimating the cosmic radiation failure rate of an HV MOSFET used in a given application.

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