victor mosfets

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by sciguy125

Alright, now just for a sanity check, MOSFETs short when they fail from too much current, right? I've seen several failed Victors and I'm reasonably sure that's what they do, but I can't remember.

Also, I have an internship this summer and I'm running tests on various devices and it seems that MOS shorts when it fails(unless of course you attack the gate). I'm working at the wafer level, but I don't see why things would change for a power transistor.

Short-circuit failure is typical on the wafer level. When large die are mounted and bonded to a single-device leadframe (e.g., TO-220) the weak link after such a failure is usually the source bonding filaments (for an n-channel device). Assuming sufficient fault current is available, these will burn open fairly quickly after the die has failed short. The result is that most discrete package power MOSFET failures are open-circuit by the time things cool off and you get to inspect the damage.