Femtosecond Laser Two-Photon Absorption for Simulating Single-Event Effects and Defining the Safe Operating Area of SiC Power MOSFETs

Single-event burnout (SEB) remains a persistent threat to SiC power MOSFETs in space, yet rapid evaluation of SEB susceptibility without costly heavy-ion campaigns is challenging. This work demonstrates that femtosecond laser two-photon absorption (TPA) can fill that role for a commercial 1200 V SiC MOSFET—provided the laser energy is correctly mapped to heavy-ion linear energy transfer (LET). We derive an equivalent LET model that incorporates the thermal spike effect, giving LET_eq = Γ1E02 + Γ2E04, which corrects the classical square law at high excitation intensities where it fails. Three ionization-driven failure signatures emerge: drain-to-gate and drain-to-source single-event leakage current (SELC), and SEB. The SEB threshold saturates near 500 V once LET exceeds 25 MeV·cm2/mg—roughly 42% of the device’s 1200 V rating. From these thresholds, we define a safe operating area: below 200 V is safe, 200–600 V risks SELC degradation, and above 600 V carries high SEB risk. Benchmarking against published heavy-ion data shows SEB threshold agreement within 15%, and within 5% at high LET. We stress that the TPA method captures ionization-driven effects only; it does not replicate displacement damage. These results support rapid, laser-based screening of SiC power devices for radiation hardness.