AuSiC Schottky barrier diodes

Results of the experimental study of Au n-type SiC Schottky barrier diodes at room temperature are presented. The diodes are fabricated by vacuum-evaporating gold on chemically etched n-type hexagonal (6H) SiC surfaces and exhibit excellent forward current vs voltage characteristics with the exponential factor n of about 1·07±0·02 for voltages between 0·35 and 0·85 V. The linear part of the characteristic, in a semi-logarithmic plot, extends over seven orders of magnitude in current. The forward current-voltage characteristics are found to agree quantitatively with the theory based on thermionic emission with the barrier height modified by image force lowering. The Schottky barrier height is determined from three independent techniques: differential capacitance vs voltage, photoresponse, and forward current vs voltage methods. The barrier height deduced from the three methods is about 1·40±0·05 V.     

Silicon-carbide high-voltage (400 V) Schottky barrier diodes

The authors describe the fabrication and characteristics of the first high-voltage (400-V) silicon-carbide (6H-SiC) Schottky barrier diodes. Measurements of the forward I-V characteristics of these diodes demonstrate a low forward voltage drop of ~1.1 V at an on-state current density of 100 A/cm² for a temperature range of 25 to 200°C. The reverse I-V characteristics of these devices exhibit a sharp breakdown, with breakdown voltages exceeding 400 V at 25°C. In addition, these diodes are shown to have superior reverse recovery characteristics when compared with high-speed silicon P-i-N rectifiers     

Determination of the laterally homogeneous barrier height of palladium Schottky barrier diodes on n-Ge (1 1 1)

We have studied the experimental linear relationship between barrier heights and ideality factors for palladium (Pd) on bulk-grown (1 1 1) Sb-doped n-type germanium (Ge) metal-semiconductor structures with a doping density of about 2.5×10¹⁵ cm^?3. The Pd Schottky contacts were fabricated by vacuum resistive evaporation. The electrical analysis of the contacts was investigated by means of current–voltage (I–V) and capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurements at a temperature of 296 K. The effective barrier heights from I–V characteristics varied from 0.492 to 0.550 eV, the ideality factor n varied from 1.140 to 1.950, and from reverse bias capacitance–voltage (C^?2–V) characteristics the barrier height varied from 0.427 to 0.509 eV. The lateral homogenous barrier height value of 0.558 eV for the contacts was obtained from the linear relationship between experimental barrier heights and ideality factors. Furthermore the experimental barrier height distribution obtained from I–V and (C^?2?V) characteristics were fitted by Gaussian distribution function, and their mean values were found to be 0.529 and 0.463 eV, respectively.     

High-voltage (3.3 kV) 4H-SiC JBS diodes

High-voltage 4H-SiC junction-barrier Schottky (JBS) diodes have been fabricated and studied. The working area of the diodes (anode contact area) is 1.44 mm². At currents in the range from 10⁻¹¹ to 1.5 A, the forward current-voltage characteristic of the diodes is described in terms of the thermionic emission model, with the series resistance taken into account: Schottky barrier height Φ_B = 1.16 eV, ideality factor n = 1.01, and series resistance R _s = 2.2 Ω (32 mΩ cm²). The value of R _s is governed by the resistance of the blocking epitaxial n-base (impurity concentration N = 9 × 10¹⁴ cm⁻³, n-layer thickness d = 34 μm). The diodes can block a reverse voltage of at least 3.3 kV (with a leakage current at room temperature on the order of 1 μA). It is suggested that the leakage mechanism is associated with crystal lattice defects (dislocations) in SiC. It is shown that the reverse-recovery characteristics of the diodes are determined by the flow of a purely capacitive reverse current.     

SiC power Schottky and PiN diodes

The present state of SiC power Schottky and PiN diodes are presented in this paper. The design, fabrication, and characterization of a 130 A Schottky diode, 4.9 kV Schottky diode, and an 8.6 kV 4H-SiC PiN diode, which are considered to be significant milestones in the development of high power SiC diodes, are described in detail. Design guidelines and practical issues for the realization of high-power SiC Schottky and PiN diodes are also presented. Experimental results on edge termination techniques applied to newly developed, extremely thick (e.g., 85 and 100 μm) 4H-SiC epitaxial layers show promising results. Switching and high-temperature measurements prove that SiC power diodes offer extremely low loss alternatives to conventional technologies and show the promise of demonstrating efficient power circuits. At sufficiently high on-state current densities, the on-state voltage drop of Schottky and PiN diodes have been shown to be comparable to those offered by conventional technologies     

Thermally oxidized mesa Schottky barrier diodes

Schottky barriers with a thermally oxidized mesa structure have been fabricated. The fabrication process is described. The mesa structure averts electric field crowding at the barrier periphery. The reverse diode characteristic shows a sharp breakdown at the voltage expected for an ideal, abrupt diode of semi-infinite extent and identical doping concentration.     

Low-frequency noise in Schottky barrier diodes

The low-frequency excess noise in Schottky barrier diodes has been investigated. In the ideal case where the saturation current is completely determined by thermionic emission of electrons, no 1/? noise will be produced in the barrier. The presence of trap states in the depletion region can lead to generation-recombination noise. At sufficient high forward currents 1/? noise can be generated in the series resistance of the Schottky diode. Deviations from the ideal diode, for example as a result of edge effects, produce 1/? noise and increase at the same time the ideality factor. It is empirically found that the 1/? noise level decreases very rapidly if the ideality factor tends to unity.     

Gallium arsenide dual Schottky barrier diodes

Gallium arsenide diodes were made which had Schottky-barriers for both contacts. Devices which were too thick for space change reach-through to occur at breakdown showed microwave oscillations, while thin diodes did not oscillate. Additionally, the structures could be distinguished on the basis of the noise accompanying breakdown. The performance was analysed in terms of transistor theory in which there is avalanche multiplication in the collector space charge region. It was concluded that there is a smooth transition between the reachthrough breakdown characteristic of the BARITT and true avalanche breakdown. The nature of the breakdown depends on the base width and the emitter efficiency.     

Report on 4H–SiC JTE Schottky diodes

4H–SiC Schottky diodes with and without Junction Terminate Extension (JTE) have been fabricated using Ni for contact and boron for p+ implant. Electrical characterization showed a rectifying behaviour in the on-state. In the reverse mode, the un-terminated Schottky diode demonstrated a breakdown voltage of approximately 200 V, while the JTE structure exhibited a significant improved breakdown performance, and the blocking voltage over 450 V. Optical microscope examination revealed the surface flashover failure located at the metal contact periphery for the un-terminated Schottky diode, while the JTE structure failed in the central area of the metal contact. Both the experimental and theoretical analyses confirmed the JTE structure enhancement on the reliability for SiC Schottky diode performance in reverse mode.     

High voltage 4H-SiC Schottky barrier diodes

Characteristics of 4H-SiC Schottky barrier diodes with breakdown voltages up to 1000 V are reported for the first time. The diodes showed excellent forward I-V characteristics, with a forward voltage drop of 1.06 V at an on-state current density of 100 A/cm². The specific on-resistance for these diodes was found to be low (2×10 ^-3 Ω-cm² at room temperature) and showed a T ^1.6 variation with temperature. Titanium Schottky barrier height was determined to be 0.99 eV independent of the temperature. The breakdown voltage of the diodes was found to decrease with temperature     

Design considerations for planar Schottky barrier diodes

The cut-off frequency of the simplest planar Schottky diode on a uniformly doped n-layer of GaAs is derived. The theoretical results are given as functions of doping concentration and layer thickness with the specific contact resistance as parameter. An improved planar diode structure is presented with several short Schottky contact fingers connected in parallel. Experimental values ranging from 100 to 300 GHz agree with the calculated values when parasitic capacitances are taken into account.     

Current transport in large-area Schottky barrier diodes

The conventional method used to determine the mechanism of current transport in a Schottky barrier diode can lead to erroneous inferences if a fluctuation of parameters, such as that which would occur in a large area diode, is present. This has been illustrated by taking a Gaussian variation of a parameter in case of diodes showing T0anomaly.     

Shot noise in silicon Schottky barrier diodes

Noise measurements have been performed on forward and reverse-biased silicon Schottky barrier diodes. Measurements were performed in the frequency range of 100 Hz to 50 kHz. Apart from excess noise observed for some diodes in a portion of this frequency range, the noise for the diodes was found to be in excellent agreement with shot-noise theory. Some refinements of the shot-noise theory have been considered, but the difference between the refined and the simple theories was not resolvable in our measurements. A useful noise-measurement technique is described.     

Electrical characteristics of GaAsP Schottky barrier diodes

Schottky barrier diodes of chromium on n-type epitaxial gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP) were studied from 25°C to 440°C. The diodes showed significant rectification properties up to a temperature of 440°C. At high temperature the reverse leakage current was 1.15 mA at 25 V with a diode area of 1.14×10⁻³ cm² as compared with 0.25-μA current at room temperature. The n factor derived from the slope of the ln I vs. V curves was 1.1. The barrier height for chromium was found to be 1.25 eV from the capacitance measurements and 1.12 eV from the saturation current vs. temperature measurements. The slope of the C-V curves yielded a carrier concentration of 6.0×10¹⁵ carriers per cm³.     

Characterization of SiC Schottky diodes at different temperatures

The emergence of silicon carbide (SiC) based power semiconductor switches, with their superior features compared with silicon (Si) based switches, has resulted in substantial improvement in the performance of power electronics converter systems. These systems with SiC power devices have the qualities of being more compact, lighter, and more efficient; thus, they are ideal for high-voltage power electronics applications. In this study, commercial Si pn and SiC Schottky diodes are tested and characterized, their behavioral static and loss models are derived at different temperatures, and they are compared with respect to each other.     

Correlation between barrier heights and ideality factors of H-terminated Sn/p-Si(1 0 0) Schottky barrier diodes

Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) were prepared by evaporation on H-terminated p-Si(1 0 0) surfaces. The Si(1 0 0)-H surfaces were obtained by wet chemical etching in diluted hydrofluoric acid. The current–voltage (I–V) characteristics of real SBDs are described by using two fitting parameters that are the effective barrier height (EBH) and ideality factor n. They were determined from I–V characteristics of SBDs (30 diodes) fabricated under experimentally identical conditions. The obtained values of EBHs varied from 0.729 to 0.749 eV, and the values of ideality factors varied from 1.083 to 1.119. The results showed that both parameters of SBDs differ from one diode to another even if they are identically prepared. The EBH distributions were fitted by two Gaussian distribution functions, and their mean values were found to be 0.739 ± 0.003 eV and 0.733 ± 0.001 eV, respectively. The homogeneous barrier height of SBDs was found to be 0.770 eV from the linear relationship between EBHs () and ideality factors (n).     

Low-frequency excess noise in metal—Silicon Schottky barrier diodes

Theoretical models for the generation-recombination noise and trapping noise in metal-semiconductor Schottky barrier diodes are developed. Low-frequency excess noise in Schottky barrier diodes is found to be dominated by the modulation of the barrier height φB caused by fluctuation in the charge state of traps or generation-recombination centers. This noise mechanism does not occur in p-n junctions. The bias and the temperature dependence of the generation-recombination noise is critically compared with the experimental data for forward diode current ranges from 3 to 300 µA and operating temperatures from -25° to 100°C. Trapping noise in Schottky barrier diodes is observed at low temperatures in diodes not intentionally doped with deep level impurities. The experimental results on trapping noise can be described by assuming that the trap states have a constant capture cross section and are uniformly distributed in space, as well as in energy. The surface potential at the diode periphery also has an important effect on the Schottky barrier diode noise. The best low-frequency noise behavior is found when the surface is at the flat-band condition. An accumulated surface is always associated with a large amount of low-frequency excess noise.     

High-voltage Ni- and Pt-SiC Schottky diodes utilizing metal fieldplate termination

We have fabricated 1 kV 4H and 6H SiC Schottky diodes utilizing a metal-oxide overlap structure for electric field termination. This simple structure when used with a high barrier height metal such as Ni has consistently given us good yield of Schottky diodes with breakdown voltages in excess of 60% of the theoretically calculated value. This paper presents the design considerations, the fabrication procedure, and characterization results for these 1 kV Ni-SiC Schottky diodes. Comparison to similarly fabricated Pt-SiC Schottky diodes is reported. The Ni-SiC ohmic contact formation has been studied using Auger electron spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The characterization study includes measurements of current-voltage (I-V) temperature and capacitance-voltage (C-V) temperature characteristics. The high-temperature performance of these diodes has also been investigated. The diodes show good rectifying behavior with ON/OFF current ratios, ranging from 10⁶ to 10 at 27°C and in excess of 10⁶ up to 300°C