Methods and circuits for improved reliability of power devices operating under repetitive thermal stress

摘要

Thermo-migration induced stress in power devices can be mitigated by deactivating a subset of power device components (e.g., transistors, etc.) when the power device experiences a high stress condition. Deactivating the subset of power device components serves to bifurcate the active area of the power switching device into smaller active regions, which advantageously changes the temperature gradients in the active area/regions. In some embodiments, a control circuit dynamically deactivates different subsets of power device components to shift the thermo-migration induced stress points to different portions of the active region over the lifetime of the power switching device.