It is essential to characterize power MosFETs regarding
their tolerance to destructive Single Event Burnouts
(SEB). Therefore, several non-destructive test methods have been
developed to evaluate the SEB cross-section of power devices. A
power MosFET has been evaluated using a test circuit, designed
according to standard non-destructive test methods discussed in
the literature. Guidelines suggest a prior adaptation of auxiliary
components to the device sensitivity before the radiation test.With
the first value chosen for the de-coupling capacitor, the external
component initiated destructive events and affected the evaluation
of the cross-section. As a result, the influence of auxiliary
components on the device cross-section was studied. This paper
presents the obtained experimental results, supported by SPICE
simulations, to evaluate and discuss how the circuit effectiveness
depends on the external components.