Electrical characteristics and inhomogeneous barrier analysis of Au-Be/p-InSe:Cd Schottky barrier diodes

We have identically prepared Au-Be/p-InSe:Cd Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) (21 dots) on the InSe:Cd substrate. The electrical analysis of Au-Be/p-InSe:Cd structure has been investigated by means of current-voltage (I-V), capacitance-voltage (C-V) and capacitance-frequency (C-f) measurements at 296 K temperature in dark conditions. The effective barrier heights and ideality factors of identically fabricated Au-Be/p-InSe:Cd SBDs have been calculated from their experimental forward bias current-voltage (I-V) characteristics by applying a thermionic emission theory. The BH values obtained from the I-V characteristics have varied between 0.74 eV and 0.82 eV with values of ideality factors ranging between 1.49 and 1.11 for the Au-Be/p-InSe:Cd SBDs. It has been determined a lateral homogeneous barrier height value of approximately 0.82 eV for these structures from the experimental linear relationship between barrier heights and ideality factors. The Schottky barrier height (SBH) value has been obtained from the reverse-bias C-V characteristics of Au-Be/p-InSe:Cd SBD for only one diode. At high currents in the forward direction, the series resistance effect has been observed. The value of series resistance has been determined from I-V measurements using Cheung’s and Norde’s methods.     

Electrical characteristics of GaAs MIS Schottky diodes

The current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics of GaAs metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) Schottky barrier diodes are investigated over a wide temperature range and compared with MS diodes. The effects of the insulating layer on barrier height and carrier transport are delineated by an activation energy analysis. Excess currents observed at low forward and reverse bias have also been analyzed and their cause identified. A capacitance anomaly consistently noticed in MIS Schottky barriers is resolved by stipulating a non-uniform interfacial layer, and a self-consistent model of the GaAs MIS Schottky barrier is developed by analyzing I-V and C-V data of both MIS and MS diodes.     

On the current-voltage characteristics of epitaxial Schottky barrier diodes

The J-V characteristics of epitaxial Schottky barrier diodes are analyzed. Based on the assumption of negligible recombination in the epitaxial layer, formal solution from which the J-V characteristics can be calculated is derived. The solution is valid for all injection levels and reduces to the form I = I_s[exp (q(V?IR)/kT) ? 1], where R is the series resistance of the epitaxial layer, under C12 C12V low-injection conditions. The analysis is justified by very close correspondence with exact numerical calculations using the Finite Element Device Analysis Program (FIELDAY) in which thermionic emission boundary conditions are implemented for both electrons and holes. It is shown that for low barrier Schottky diodes the minority carrier injection is negligible and the expression I = I_s[exp (q(V?IR)/kT) ? 1] describes the I-V characteristics over large bias range. For high barrier C12 C12 V Schottky diodes the exact solution must be used as minority carriers are injected and the series resistance is decreased due to conductivity modulation effect.     

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.     

Current-voltage characteristics of Schottky barrier diodes withdynamic interfacial defect state occupancy

Schottky barrier diode theory conventionally assumes that the barrier height remains constant with the applied bias. However, high ideality factors and certain anomalous capacitance-voltage characteristics can only be explained by letting the barrier height vary with the applied voltage. Changes in the occupation of surface states have been inferred to be the cause of this change in barrier height, although the precise nature of these surface states has not yet been determined. This article examines the role of monoenergetic interfacial defect states whose occupancy is dynamically controlled by the local carrier densities, rather than by equilibrium conditions. Certain types of surface donor and acceptor states are shown to have a strong influence on the resulting current-voltage characteristics. The Al/GaAs(100) system is discussed in detail and experimental results are compared to this analytic model     

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.     

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.     

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.     

The effect of Ti:W barrier metal on characteristics of palladium-silicide Schottky barrier diodes

The values of diode-quality factor and reverse-current leakage of Au/Pd/Ti:W/Pd₂Si/nSi unguarded Schottky barrier diodes are much higher than expected from silicide/silicon junction-radius induced highfield effects. Experimental Ti-, W-, and Ti:W-MIS structures were built and tested to show that Ti is responsible for the formation of a parasitic Ti-MIS structure around the unguarded-diode perimeter. This parasitic structure is responsible for excessive current leakage and also for an additional unguarded-diode degradation induced by annealing at 400 °C.     

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.     

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.     

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 properties of narrow-gap HgMnTe Schottky diodes

The electrical properties of Al/Hg_1?x Mn_xTe (x=0.08–0.1) Schottky barriers have been studied. Specific features related to a narrow band gap and to a strong difference between the effective masses of carriers have been revealed. The principal parameters defining the characteristics of a diode structure, as well as the tunneling and above-barrier (diffusion) carrier transport, are determined. The obtained experimental and theoretical data demonstrate the high detectivity of the diodes under study.     

Temperature variable noise and electrical characteristics ofAu-Ga-As Schottky barrier millimeter-wave mixer diodes

The fabrication and characterization of gold-gallium arsenide Schottky-barrier diodes on molecular-beam-epitaxy (MBE)-grown epitaxial gallium arsenide intended for cryogenic millimeter-wave mixer applications is reported. The Schottky barriers were formed either by pulse plating or by in situ evaporation in the MBE system after the epitaxial growth. The equivalent temperature as derived from the current-voltage characteristic is considerably lower at high current densities and cryogenic temperature than for the more commonly used Pt-GaAs Schottky diode. Noise-generation mechanisms are investigated as a function of forward bias and temperature. At cryogenic temperature, a best equivalent noise temperature of 22 K was obtained at 4 GHz for a DC-biased diode     

The effects of sputtering damage on the characteristics of molybdenum-silicon Schottky barrier diodes

The properties of d.c. sputtered molybdenum-silicon Schottky diodes are described. Although it is possible to produce near ideal characteristics when a low sputtering voltage is used for a short time, increased voltage and time lead to significant deviation from the ideal. A model is proposed which is capable of explaining most features of the observed C-V and I-V characteristics. This model assumes that sputtering damage causes donor-like traps to be created close to the semiconductor surface. It is found that an exponential distribution of traps with characteristic length in the range 10–100 A and an energy level of 0·43 eV below the conduction band is sufficient to account for the observed characteristics. The modification to the I–V characteristics is due to tunnelling through the top of the Schottky barrier where it is narrowed by the presence of the excess trapped charge.