Abstract: This special topic uses Nuwa TCAD software to simulate the electrical characteristics of SiC MOSFET, SBD, PIN, IGBT, and MPS devices, demonstrating device structure construction, physical model settings, and simulation results. The goal is to enable users to fully understand Nuwa TCAD and learn to use it for SiC power device simulation and design.
Silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductor material is one of the fastest-growing semiconductor materials in the field of power electronics. Compared with traditional semiconductor material silicon (Si), SiC has a wide bandgap (about 3.26 eV), high critical breakdown electric field (about 2.5×106 V/cm), high thermal conductivity (about 4.9 W/(cm·°C)), and high carrier saturation drift velocity (about 2.7×107 cm/s). These characteristics enable SiC power devices to achieve high breakdown voltage, operating temperature, power density, and switching frequency, which can effectively reduce power loss as well as system size and weight in applications. SiC devices are widely used in fields such as rail transit, ultra-high voltage power grids, charging stations, photovoltaic power generation, new energy vehicles, high-speed trains, consumer electronics, and more.
SiC semiconductor power devices mainly fall into two categories: diode-type devices, including Schottky Barrier Diodes (SBD), Junction Barrier Schottky Diodes (JBS), and PIN power diodes (PIN); and transistor-type devices, such as Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors (MOSFET), Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT), Junction Field-Effect Transistors (JFET), Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJT), and thyristors.
Research on SiC power devices began relatively early internationally, with multiple companies and research institutions taking the lead in this field. Companies such as Wolfspeed, STMicroelectronics, Microsemi, and ROHM have successively launched various high-performance MOSFET power devices. Although research on SiC power devices in China started later, the gap with foreign countries has been gradually narrowing as research levels continue to improve and mature. A large number of companies and research institutions specializing in the independent research, development, and production of SiC power devices have emerged, such as SICHAIN Semiconductor (清纯半导体), Zhuzhou CRRC Times Electric (株洲中车时代), Shenzhen BASiC Semiconductor (深圳基本半导体), Inventchip Technology (also known as IVCT, 瞻芯电子), China Resources Microelectronics (华润微电子), PN Junction Semiconductor (also known as PNJ, 派恩杰半导体), University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC, 电子科技大学), Zhejiang University (ZJU, 浙江大学）, and others, have independently developed and launched multiple types of MOSFET and diode power devices.
SiC power devices are playing an increasingly critical role in the field of power electronics today and into the future. Continuous improvement of device structure, optimization of quality factors, and addressing development challenges—such as heat dissipation, reliability, and performance degradation—are key to enhancing device performance and aligning with international standards in SiC power technology. Compared with experimental wafer fabrication, semiconductor device simulation not only allows rapid analysis of device internal mechanisms, optimization of device structure, and verification of new device performance but also significantly increases product development efficiency and reduces costs. Semiconductor device simulation has become one of the essential means for semiconductor device research and development.
This special topic uses semiconductor device simulation software to simulate various SiC power devices, covering device structure construction, physical model parameter settings, simulation calculations, and result analysis. The goal is to enable users to quickly master the software, understand the device physics of different types of SiC semiconductor devices through simulation, and identify structures and methods to enhance the performance of SiC power devices, thereby contributing to the advancement of SiC technology and empowering organizations to achieve industry-leading performance.
This special topic uses Nuwa TCAD for simulating SiC power devices. Nuwa TCAD is a 2D & 3D domestic semiconductor process and device simulation software that includes self-consistent solutions for multi-physics fields such as optical, electrical, thermal, and mechanical simulations, solving the fundamental drift-diffusion equations for semiconductors. It incorporates various physical models, including defect modeling, Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) recombination, Auger recombination, carrier tunneling, impact ionization, mobility, thermionic emission, and self-heating effects. Nuwa TCAD can simulate the physical mechanisms and electrical characteristics of SiC power devices, providing spatial distributions of various physical quantities, I-V characteristics, transient and steady-state behavior, and high-frequency characteristics, which can be used to analyze internal device mechanisms (such as carrier transport, quantum transitions, band distribution) and optimize device structures to ultimately improve device performance.