Power semiconductors that are used under high voltage conditions in hybrid vehicles (HVs) are required to have a high destruction tolerance against cosmic rays as well as to meet conventional quality standards. In this paper, the failure mechanism for single event burnouts (SEB) induced by cosmic rays in insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) was investigated. Device destruction tolerance can be greatly improved by adopting an optimized device design that greatly suppresses parasitic thyristor action.