The SINFET: a new high conductance, high switching speed MOS-gated transistor

A new MOS power semiconductor device with a very low on-resistance and a switching speed comparable to conventional n-channel power MOSFETs is described. The fabrication process is similar to that of an n-channel lateral DMOS transistor but with the conventional high-low `ohmic? drain contact replaced by a Schottky contact. In operation, the Schottky contact injects minority carriers to conductivity-modulate the n- drift region, thereby reducing the on-resistance by a factor of about ten compared with those of conventional n-channel power MOSFETs of comparable size and voltage capability. Furthermore, since only a small number of minority carriers are injected, the device speed is comparable to conventional n-channel power MOSFETs.     

The SINFET—A Schottky injection MOS-gated power transistor

A new MOS-gated power device, the Schottky injection FET (SINFET), is described in this paper. The device offers 6 times higher current handling capability than conventional n-channel power LDMOS transistors of comparable size and voltage capability and still maintains a comparable switching speed. The low on-resistance is obtained by conductivity modulation of the high-resistivity n- drift region using a Schottky injector. Since only a small number of minority carriers are injected, the speed of the device is not degraded substantially and high latchup resistance is achieved. Breakdown voltages and specific on-resistance observed on typical devices are 170 V and 0.01 Ω . cm², respectively. Gate-turn off times are of the order of 30 ns. Two-dimensional simulation and experimental results comparing the SIN-FET with the LDMOST and lateral insulated gate transistor (LIGT) are presented.     

Transient characteristics of n-channel hybrid Schottky injectionFETs

Theoretical transient characteristics of hybrid Schottky injection FETs (HSINFETs) are considered. The theoretical analysis is based on two-dimensional numerical simulations, in which the entire turn-off process and the effects of minority-carrier injection levels on the transient performance of the HSINFET device are analyzed. The analysis shows that the fast turn-off speed in the HSINFET device occurs because (1) only a small number of minority carriers is injected into the drift region, (2) a current path, provided by the Schottky contact, effectively removes electrons from the drift region during turn-off, and (3) Schottky clamping at the anode is effective during turn-off and prevents the p⁺ portion of the hybrid anode from significantly injecting holes. Experimental results compared the DC and transient performance of the lateral double-diffused MOS transistor (LDMOST), lateral insulated-gate transistor (LIGT), Schottky injection field-effect (SINFET), and HSINFET are presented     

Schottky-clamped NMOS transistors implemented in a conventional0.8-μm CMOS process

An 0.8-μm n-channel MOSFET with a TiSi₂-Si Schottky clamped drain-to-body junction (SCDR) and an n⁺ implanted standard source structure have been fabricated in a conventional 0.8-μm salicide CMOS process without any process modifications. The SCDR should be useful for reducing susceptibility for latch-up in integrated CMOS RF power amplifiers and switches where drain to p-substrate junctions can be forward biased during normal operations. Output I-V characteristics of the devices are the same as those of conventional MOSFETs, while parasitic lateral n⁺-drain/p-substrate/n⁺-source bipolar transistor measurements showed significantly reduced current gains because the Schottky barrier diode which does not inject minority carriers (electrons) to the p-substrate base clamps the n⁺ drain-to-p-substrate guard-ring diode connected in parallel     

MPS二极管的少子特性仿真

混合pin/肖特基(MPS)二极管是广泛应用于电子电路中的快恢复功率器件,具有高击穿电压、快速开关和正向电流大等特性。对MPS二极管漂移区的少数载流子的特性进行了仿真分析。仿真结果表明,MPS二极管的p^+区向漂移区注入的少数载流子浓度随外加正向电压和pn结面积占元胞总面积比例的增大而增大。虽然漂移区的少数载流子改变了MPS二极管的工作模式,增大了电流,但是存储在漂移区的少数载流子增大了反向峰值电流和恢复时间,进而增大了功耗并降低了关断速度。折中考虑正向电流和反向恢复特性,可获得具有正向电流大、反向峰值电流小和反向恢复时间短的MPS二极管。     

Electrical characteristics of an epitaxial high barrier Schottky diode

A Schottky barrier diode with high barrier height injects minority carriers at the forward biased condition. With injection of minority carriers the current density–voltage characteristics are altered significantly from that of the conventional exponential relationship. A model incorporating drift and diffusion currents for both holes and electrons, carrier recombination within the drift region and also the blocking properties of the low–high (n^- n⁺) interface is developed. The previous works on high barrier Schottky diodes used empirical expressions to combine the high injection model with the low injection model in order to study its behaviour at intermediate levels of injection. Whereas in the present work, a boundary condition is applied to combine the high injection model with an intermediate injection model. To combine an intermediate level model with a low injection level model, another boundary condition is introduced. The present work provides solutions for important physical quantities such as the minority carrier profile and current within the drift region, injection ratio and storage time.     

Characteristics of p-channel polysilicon conductivity modulatedthin-film transistors

A p-channel polysilicon conductivity modulated thin-film transistor (CMTFT) is demonstrated and experimentally characterized. The transistor uses the concept of conductivity modulation in the offset region to obtain a significant reduction in on-state resistance. The conductivity modulation is achieved by injecting minority carriers (electrons) into the offset region through a diode added to the drain. Experimental results show that the conductivity modulation in the p-channel device is as effective as that in the n-channel device. This structure can provide 1.5 to 2 orders of magnitude higher on-state current than that of the conventional offset drain thin-film transistor (TFT) at drain voltage ranging from -15 V to -5 V while still maintaining low leakage current and simplicity in device operation. The p-channel CMTFT can be combined with the n-channel CMTFT to form CMOS high-voltage drivers, which is very suitable for use in fully integrated large-area electronic applications     

Current transport in an ion-implanted diode

In a Schottky diode, the diode saturation current is controlled by the barrier height at the metal and semi-conductor contact, assuming that the dominant current is due to thermionic emission. When ion implantation is used to increase the barrier height, both thermionic emission and drift-diffusion of carriers become important in calculating the current. Numerical methods are used in solving Poisson's equation and the current continuity equations for an ion implanted doping profile. The electron and hole current in the surface region are calculated as a function of the total implantation dosage. The results show that the decrease of saturation current and the increase of effective barrier height in an ion implanted diode is mainly due to the suppression of the thermionic emission current by the implanted impurity atoms, rendering the diode to act like a pn junction.     

3300V碳化硅肖特基二极管及混合功率模块研制

基于数值仿真结果,采用结势垒肖特基(JBS)结构和多重场限环终端结构实现了3 300 V/50 A 4H-SiC肖特基二极管(SBD),所用4H-SiC外延材料厚度为35 μm、n型掺杂浓度为2× 1015cm-3.二极管芯片面积为49 mm2,正向电压2.2V下电流达到50 A,比导通电阻13.7 mΩ· cm2;反偏条件下器件的雪崩击穿电压为4 600 V.基于这种3 300 V/50 A 4H-SiC肖特基二极管,研制出3 300 V/600 A混合功率模块,该模块包含24只3 300 V/50 A Si IGBT与12只3 300 V/50 A 4H-SiC肖特基二极管,SiC肖特基二极管为模块的续流二极管.模块的动态测试结果为:反向恢复峰值电流为33.75 A,反向恢复电荷为0.807 μC,反向恢复时间为41 ns.与传统的Si基IGBT模块相比,该混合功率模块显著降低了器件开关过程中的能量损耗.     

The effects of impact ionization on the operation of neighboringdevices and circuits

This paper examines the detrimental effects of excess majority carriers and photons induced by impact ionization on the operation of neighboring pn junctions, bipolar transistors, MOS transistors, and circuits. The experimental results show that in addition to an increase in the substrate surface potential due to the excess majority carriers, photons can lower the barrier of a pn junction and, as a consequence, shift the Gummel plot of an npn bipolar transistor. As for the neighboring circuits, an example in which the speed of an NMOS ring oscillator is retarded by impact ionization in a neighboring NMOS transistor is presented     

New device degradation due to `cold' carriers created byband-to-band tunneling

Device degradation caused by so-called `cold' carriers due to band-to-band tunneling in a MOS drain region is studied. The cold carriers acquire energy from the electric field in the drain region and surmount the Si-SiO₂ barrier. In an n-channel device, injected holes cause a decrease in the tunnel current and a negative MOS threshold-voltage shift opposite to that observed in hot-carrier degradation previously reported. A simple analytical model is presented. This model agrees well with the experimental data in both n- and p-channel devices     

Power Schottky diode design and comparison with the junction diode

Because the Schottky diode is a one-carrier device, it has both advantages and disadvantages with respect to the junction diode which is a two-carrier device. The advantage is that there are practically no excess minority carriers which must be swept out before the diode blocks current in the reverse direction. The disadvantage of the Schottky diode is that for a high voltage device it is not possible to use conductivity modulation as in the pin diode; since charge carriers are of one sign, no charge cancellation can occur and current becomes space charge limited. The Schottky diode design is developed in Section 2 and the characteristics of an optimally designed silicon Schottky diode are summarized in Fig. 9. Design criteria and quantitative comparison of junction and Schottky diodes is given in Table 1 and Fig. 10. Although somewhat approximate, the treatment allows a systematic quantitative comparison of the devices for any given application.     

A Schottky-barrier diode with self-aligned floating guard ring

A Schottky-barrier diode with self-aligned floating guard ring is described. The device structure requires no additional mask or process step in an advanced bipolar LSI technology featuring polysilicon base contact and self-aligned emitter region [1]. In contrast to conventional guard ring structures, the guard ring is separated from the anode by a sidewall oxide of thickness less than 0.3 µm, allowing independent access to the guard ring. Near-idealI-Vcharacteristics are obtained. It is shown that the guard ring can be left floating without degrading theI-Vcharacteristics of the Schottky diode. In this mode of operation, the advantage of the guard ring is maintained while the depletion capacitance and charge storage due to minority-carrier injection from the p⁺-n junction which reduce the effectiveness of the Schottky diode as an antisaturation device are eliminated.     

Light-emitting transistor based on real-space transfer: electricaland optical properties

The charge injection transistor is implemented in InGaAs/InAlAs/InGaAs heterostructure material, grown by molecular beam epitaxy. A complementary collector of p-type conductivity is used for the first time. The real-space transfer of hot electrons leads to a luminescence signal proportional to the injection current. The radiative efficiency is significantly enhanced by a double-heterostructure design of the collector active region, which confines the injected minority carriers. The internal quantum efficiency of the light-emitting transistor is comparable to that of light-emitting diodes. Due to peculiar symmetry of real-space transfer, the optical output signal follows an exclusive-OR function of input voltages. Functional logic operation of the device is demonstrated at room temperature     

Short-channel GaAs FET fabricated like a MESFET but operating like a JFET

Normally-on GaAs field-effect transistors (FETs) having 1 ?m gate lengths and 4 ?m channel lengths were fabricated in structures grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The unique part of this device is the very thin p+/n+ structure used to replace the conventional Schottky barriers. The device fabrication procedure is identical to that of a Schottky barrier FET (MESFET), but the devices exhibit characteristics similar to that of a junction field-effect transistor (JFET). This new device, the `camel diode gate FET?, is expected to have applications in both logic and power devices.     

Space charge limited and emitter current limited injections in space charge region of semiconductors

If, in a space charge region of a semiconductor device, a unipolar drift current is a main component of the total current, an analogy with motion of electrons in vacuum exists. In the space charge limited emission, injection of minority carriers is limited by space charges, as in a punched-through p-n-p diode. On the other hand, in a transistor, minority carriers are injected into the depletion layer between the base and the collector, after diffusion in the neutral base region. This injection is limited by emitter current, and this mode of injection corresponds to a temperature limited emission in a vacuum tube. In this paper, equations of minority carrier impedances will be calculated in both these cases, and negative resistances can be expected at some transit angles. Then a generalized equation, which includes these two modes of injections as special cases, will be obtained. This generalized equation corresponds to the Llewellyn-Peterson equation of vacuum tubes, which include the space charge limited emission and the temperature limited emission as special cases.     

Optimized design of 4H-SiC floating junction power Schottky barrier diodes

SiC floating junction Schottky barrier diodes were simulated with software MEDICI 4.0 and their device structures were optimized based on forward and reverse electrical characteristics.Compared with the conventional power Schottky barrier diode,the device structure is featured by a highly doped drift region and embedded floating junction region,which can ensure high breakdown voltage while keeping lower specific on-state resistance,solved the contradiction between forward voltage drop and breakdown voltage.The simulation results show that with optimized structure parameter,the breakdown voltage Can reach 4 kV and the specific on-resistance is 8.3 mΩ·cm2.     

Parasitic MOSFET degradation induced by Fowler-Nordheim injection

Degradation induced by Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) electron injection is observed in a parasitic MOS transistor associated with a MOS transistor's edge region. A bump appears in the subthreshold region of both an n-channel transistor after positive gate biased F-N injection and a p-channel transistor after negative gate biased F-N injection. It is found that the effective gate-oxide thickness of a parasitic transistor is 30 nm. As thinner gate oxide is used, the amount of the charge injected into the gate oxide may increase due to increased electric fields     

An insulated gate bipolar transistor employing the plugged n anode

A vertical Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor, entitled CB-IGBT(Carrier-inducing Barrier-controlled IGBT) has been proposed and verified by a two-dimensional numerical simulation. The structure of the proposed device is almost identical with that of the conventional IGBT, except for the anode structure in which the p-barrier region and n⁺ anode region are employed. In the CB-IGBT, the potential barrier height at the junction between the p-barrier region and n-drift region is controlled by the amount of carriers, so that the trade-off relation between the on-state voltage drop and the switching speed is decoupled efficiently. The switching speed of CB-IGBT is so much enhanced with a negligible increase of the on-state voltage drop, since electrons stored in the n-drift region can be extracted rapidly into the n⁺ anode via p-barrier region during turn-off process.     

Bipolar-mode Schottky contact and applications to high-speed diodes

A Schottky contact operation combined with minority-carrier transport, a concept of bipolar-mode Schottky contacts, is proposed. There are two bipolar-mode Schottky contacts. One acts as a minority-carrier injector causing conductivity modulation without excessive carrier accumulation, while the other operates as an ideal ohmic contact to conduct minority carriers without accumulation. Applicationally, these contacts are utilized to improve conventional Schottky diodes and p-n diodes, respectively and a high-voltage Schottky diode (BSBD) and a fast-recovery p-n diode (quasi-LLD) can then be realized.