What is the Safe Operating Area of a power semiconductor?
Power semiconductor manufacturers include a curve in their power transistor data sheets that defines the allowable combination of voltage and current, which is called the devices safe operating area (SOA). The product of the voltage and current represents the watts dissipated in the chip. If you exceed the SOA, the chip will get too hot and fail. MOSFET devices are limited by the SOA; bipolar devices have an additional failure mechanism called secondary breakdown that significantly reduces the SOA.
