SILICON CARBIDE SCHOTTKY AND P-I-N RECTIFIERS

By

SAURAV NIGAM

A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

2003

Copyright 2003

by

Saurav Nigam

To my parents, my fiancée, my brother and my friends for their endless love and support.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The past year has been one of the most crucial years of my life because for the first

time in my professional career, I was introduced to an exciting realm of microelectronics.

I would like to thank my advisor, Prof. Fan Ren, for giving me this golden opportunity to

join his research group. His commitment to provide world-class facilities in his

laboratory, engage students in the cutting-edge research and above all to provide

excellent guidance in all the spheres of life, both professional and personal, is truly

exceptional. Needless to mention, his extreme hard work and determination will always

act as a source of inspiration to me and instill in me the confidence to face every

adversity in life. He has always been able to find some time out of his extremely busy

schedule to help me to steer my efforts in the right direction. I will always look forward

to him as my true mentor.

I am also indebted to the other members of my advisory committee: Steve Pearton

and Tim Anderson. Their significant contributions to this work are greatly appreciated.

During the collaboration with Prof. Steve Pearton’s and Prof. Cammy Abernathy’s

research groups, I had an opportunity to develop interpersonal skills, emphasizing team

efforts and it was here that I came across some of the most remarkable people, like Brent

Gila and Mark, that I have ever known.

I would like to thank Brent for always lending me a helping hand whenever I

needed him and for his perspicacious views especially during the Wednesday meetings. I

iv

will also always cherish nice little discussions with Mark, who has provided me his

considerable time and energy to help me to set up the dicing saw.

I would also like to thank Ben Luo not just for providing the guidance in research

but also for providing his invaluable advice and guidance. I will always cherish those

moments when he would come up with his nice little humorous comments that would

take away all the stress after the day’s work. I would always count on him as a truly

sincere friend to seek for the right guidance. I would also like to thank Rishabh for his

support and care. He has been patient in providing me his valuable time to gain hands-on

experience with various equipment together with some delicious food and recipes. I have

also learned a lot from Jihyun, who has collaborated most closely with my research. I

would also like to thank Yoshi for providing me help and support and always showing a

great deal of concern. His friendship is one of the greatest gifts to me. Kelly, Kwang and

Kyu-pil have always been kind enough to lend their helping hand with the research.

I would like to thank Dennis Vince and Jim Hinnat of the Chemical Engineering

Department’s machine shop for all their help. I would also like to thank the staff in the

Chemical Engineering Department for all their administrative help. They are Peggy-Jo

Daugherty, Sonja Pealer, Santiago, Nancy Krell, Janice Harris and Debbie Sadoval. Their

assistance allowed me to focus on research.

I would like to thank my parents, my brother and my fiancée for their endless love,

care and support. They have provided me the strength and inspiration to continue my

studies at the University of Florida. This acknowledgement cannot be complete without

thanking my roommates Gopal, Nori, Sudeep and Archit, who have been very

understanding and caring throughout my stay at Gainesville.

v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

page

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv

LIST OF TABLES........................................................................................................... viii

LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... ix

ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................... xii

CHAPTER

1 INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1

1.1 Background............................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Current Status of SiC Power Technology............................................................... 4 1.3 SiC Semiconductor Devices for Power Applications ............................................. 7

1.3.1 Material Availability and Quality ................................................................... 8 1.3.2 SiC Processing Technology ............................................................................ 9

1.3.2.1 Ion implantation ...................................................................................10 1.3.2.2 Oxides on SiC ......................................................................................11 1.3.2.3 Contacts................................................................................................12 1.3.2.4 Edge termination and passivation ........................................................13

2 SILICON CARBIDE SCHOTTKY RECTIFIERS .....................................................14

2.1 Experimental Characteristics of 4H-SiC Schottky Rectifiers............................... 14 2.1.1 Introduction................................................................................................... 14 2.1.2 Experimental Methods .................................................................................. 15 2.1.3 Results and Discussion.................................................................................. 17

2.2 Ni Contacts to N-Type 4H-SiC............................................................................. 26 2.3 Stability of SiC Schottky Rectifiers to Rapid Thermal Annealing....................... 27

2.3.1. Introduction.................................................................................................. 27 2.3.2 Experimental Methods .................................................................................. 29 2.3.3 Results and Discussion.................................................................................. 29 2.3.4 Summary and Conclusions............................................................................ 32

3 IRRADIATION AND PASSIVATION EFFECTS ON 4H-SiC RECTIFERS...........38

3.1 High Energy Proton Irradiation Effects on SiC Schottky Rectifiers .................... 38 3.1.1 Introduction................................................................................................... 38

vi

3.1.2 Experimental Methods .................................................................................. 39 3.1.3 Results and Discussion.................................................................................. 39

3.2 Influence of PECVD of SiO2 Passivation Layers on 4H-SiC Schottky Rectifiers41 3.2.1 Introduction................................................................................................... 41 3.2.2 Experimental Methods .................................................................................. 45 3.2.3 Results and Discussion.................................................................................. 45

3.3 Effect on 4H-SiC Schottky Rectifier of Ar Discharges Generated in a Planar Inductively Coupled Plasma Source ..................................................................... 47

3.3.1 Introduction................................................................................................... 47 3.3.2 Experimental Methods .................................................................................. 51 3.3.3 Results and Discussion.................................................................................. 51 3.3.4 Summary and Conclusions............................................................................ 54

4 JUNCTION TERMINATION EXTENSION GEOMETRY OF SiC RECTIFIERS..61

4.1 Influence of Edge Termination Geometry on Performance of 4H-SiC P-i-N Rectifiers ............................................................................................................... 62

4.1.1 Introduction................................................................................................... 62 4.1.2 Experimental Methods .................................................................................. 63 4.1.3 Results and Discussion.................................................................................. 63

4.2 Effect of Contact Geometry on 4H-SiC Schottky Rectifiers with Junction Termination Extension.......................................................................................... 65

4.2.1 Introduction................................................................................................... 65 4.2.2 Experimental Methods .................................................................................. 65 4.2.3 Results and Discussion.................................................................................. 72

4.3 Role of Device Area, Mesa Length and Metal Overlap Distance on Breakdown Voltage of 4H-SiC P-i-N Rectifiers...................................................................... 74

4.3.1 Introduction................................................................................................... 74 4.3.2 Experimental Methods .................................................................................. 74 4.3.3 Results and Discussion.................................................................................. 82 4.3.4 Summary and Conclusions............................................................................ 84

LIST OF REFERENCES...................................................................................................93

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ...........................................................................................102

vii

LIST OF TABLES

Table page 1-1 Physical properties of important semiconductors for high voltage power devices. .5

1-2 Normalized unipolar figures of merit of important semiconductors for high voltage power devices..............................................................................................5

viii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure page

1-1 Comparison of the ideal breakdown voltage of Si and SiC devices for different doping levels. ...........................................................................................................2

1-2 Comparison of the blocking layer thickness as a function of the ideal breakdown voltage for SiC and Si. .............................................................................................3

2-1 Cross-section of SiC Schottky rectifiers (top) and photograph of completed 2 inch diameter wafer (bottom).................................................................................16

2-2 Reverse I-V characteristics at 25 0C from Schottky rectifiers with different contact diameters. ..................................................................................................18

2-3 Reverse I-V characteristic from 154 µm diameter rectifier (top) and map of reverse breakdown voltage from a quarter of a 2 inch diameter wafer (bottom). .19

2-4 Comparison of breakdown voltage obtained from simulations and the fabricated devices....................................................................................................................21

2-5 Calculated reverse breakdown voltage as a function of epilayer doping. ..............23

2-6 Forward I-V characteristics in linear (top) and log (bottom) scales.......................24

2-7 Specific on-resistance as a function of breakdown voltage....................................25

2-8 Contact resistivity of Ni ohmic contact on n+ 4H-SiC as a function of annealing temperature (top), annealing time (center) and annealing ambient (bottom). .......28

2-9 Forward I-V characteristics as a function of anneal temperature for 60 sec anneals....................................................................................................................33

2-10 Change in RON as a function of anneal temperature for 60 sec anneals. ................34

2-11 Forward I-V characteristics (top) and change in VF (center) and RON (bottom) as a function of anneal time at 900˚C. ...................................................................35

2-12 Optical micrographs of Ni contacts before (top) and after annealing at 1000˚C for 60 sec (center) or 120 sec (bottom). .................................................................36

ix

2-13 Change in VF (top) and RON (bottom) as a function of measurement temperature after 900˚C, 60 sec anneals. ...................................................................................37

3-1 Reverse I-V characteristics from 4H-SiC Schottky rectifiers before and after proton irradiation at a dose of 5 x 109 cm-2 (top) and percentage increase in reverse leakage at –250V (bottom). .......................................................................42

3-2 Forward I-V characteristics from 4H-SiC Schottky rectifiers before and after proton irradiation at a dose of 5 x 109 cm-2 (top) and percentage decrease in forward current at 2V (bottom)..............................................................................43

3-3 Numerical change in values of n (top), RON (center) and VF (bottom) as a function of proton fluence......................................................................................44

3-4 Percentage change in VB as a function of plasma power (top), process pressure (center) and N2O content (bottom) during SiO2 deposition...................................48

3-5 Percentage change in VF as a function of plasma power (top) and process pressure (bottom) during SiO2 deposition..............................................................49

3-6 Percentage change in RON as a function of plasma power (top), N2O content (center) and process pressure (bottom) during SiO2 deposition. ...........................50

3-7 Planar coil ICP reactor............................................................................................56

3-8 Percentage change in VB (top) and RON (bottom) of 4H-SiC rectifiers as a function of ICP source power. ...............................................................................57

3-9 Percentage change in VF (top) and n (bottom) of 4H-SiC rectifiers as a function of ICP source power...............................................................................................58

3-10 Percentage change in VB (top) and RON (bottom) of 4H-SiC rectifiers as a function of process pressure...................................................................................59

3-11 Percentage change in VF (top) and n (bottom) of 4H-SiC rectifiers as a function of process pressure.................................................................................................60

4-1 P-i-N rectifier..........................................................................................................66

4-2 Forward I-V characteristics of p-i-n rectifier. ........................................................67

4-3 Reverse I-V characteristics from p-i-n rectifiers as a function of metal overlap distance onto mesa. ................................................................................................68

4-4 Variation of VB with metal overlap distance for p-i-n rectifiers. ...........................69

4-5 Reverse I-V characteristics from p-i-n rectifiers as a function of mesa length. .....70

x

4-6 Variation of VB with mesa length for p-i-n rectifiers with fixed metal overlap distance of 4 µm.....................................................................................................71

4-7 Schottky rectifier. ...................................................................................................75

4-8 Forward I-V characteristics of 0.64 mm2 rectifier..................................................76

4-9 Reverse I-V characteristics of 0.04 mm2 rectifiers with different contact shape. ..77

4-10 Reverse I-V characteristics of rectifiers with oval shaped contacts of different area.........................................................................................................................78

4-11 Reverse I-V characteristics of rectifiers with oval shaped contacts (0.04 mm2), as a function of extent of metal overlap.................................................................79

4-12 Reverse I-V characteristics of rectifiers with oval-shaped contacts (0.04 mm2), as a function of extent of metal overlap.................................................................80

4-13 Variation of VB with extent of metal overlap for different JTE lengths.................81

4-14 Reverse I-V characteristics of p-i-n rectifiers as a function of active area.............86

4-15 VB as a function of diode area for p-i-n rectifiers with mesa length 20 µm and metal overlap 4 µm. ...............................................................................................87

4-16 Reverse I-V characteristics of p-i-n rectifiers as a function of metal overlap distance. .................................................................................................................88

4-17 VB as a function of metal overlap length for p-i-n rectifiers with area 0.04 mm2 and zero mesa length..............................................................................................89

4-18 Reverse I-V characteristics of p-i-n rectifiers as a function of mesa length...........90

4-19 VB as a function of mesa length for p-i-n rectifiers with area 0.04 mm2 and zero metal overlap length...............................................................................................91

4-20 Forward I-V characteristics. ...................................................................................92

xi

Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School

of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science

SILICON CARBIDE SCHOTTKY AND P-I-N RECTIFIERS

By

Saurav Nigam

May 2003

Chair: Fan Ren Major Department: Chemical Engineering

There has been a significant research interest in silicon carbide (SiC) over the past

few years as a base material system for high frequency and high power semiconductor

devices. SiC Schottky diodes have shown an excellent performance for the realization of

power diodes for fast switching applications with nearly negligible power loss. In spite of

extremely high switching speeds, Schottky diodes suffer from high leakage current. P-i-N

diodes offer low leakage currents but show reverse recovery charge during switching and

have a large junction forward voltage drop due to the wide bandgap of 4H-SiC. However,

both the diodes have shown a considerable improvement in maximum breakdown voltage

values compared to that of planar junctions, with the employment of proper edge

termination methods.

The dc performance of SiO2 dielectric overlap-terminated 4H-SiC Schottky

rectifiers was simulated for different drift layer doping levels and dielectric thickness.

The devices were then fabricated with different Schottky contact diameters and the dc

xii

results compared to the simulations. There was a strong dependence of reverse

breakdown voltage (VB) on contact diameter (φ) ranging from –750 V for 100 µm φ to –

440 V for 1000 µm. The reverse leakage current scaled with diode diameter, indicating

that the surface contributions are dominant. The specific on-state resistance was ~0.36

mΩcm2, close to the theoretical minimum, with a forward turn-on voltage of 1.82 V at

100 A.cm-2. The contact resistivity of back-side Ni contacts annealed at 970 0C was ~1.2

x 10-6 Ωcm2.

The effect of deposition conditions of plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

(PECVD) SiO2 layers and inductively coupled Ar plasmas on the electrical properties of

4H-SiC Schottky rectifiers was also studied. For the former, the changes in reverse

breakdown voltage (VB), forward turn-on voltage (VF) and on-state resistance (RON) were

≤ 20% over a broad range of plasma conditions and show that 4H-SiC is relatively

resistant to changes induced by the ion bombardment and hydrogen flux present during

PECVD of dielectrics to surface passivation. In the latter, the VB increased by increase in

both incident ion energy and ion flux.

4H-SiC P-i-N rectifiers with SiO2 passivated mesa edge termination showed

forward current characteristics dominated by recombination at low bias (n~1.97) and

diffusion at high voltages (n~1.1). The forward turn-on voltage was ~4V, with a specific

on-state resistance of 15 mΩcm2, on/off current ratio of 1.5x105 at 3V/-450V and figure-

of-merit, VB2/RON, of 13.5 MWcm-2. The mesa extension distance did not have a strong

impact on reverse breakdown voltage.

xiii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Silicon carbide (SiC) has shown outstanding potential for high power, high

temperature, high frequency and high voltage devices used in advanced communications

and radar system sensor and control systems, utility power switching and traction motor

control. The material has excellent physical and electrical properties such as extremely

high thermal conductivity (up to 4.9 W/cmK), high breakdown electric field (2-4 x 106

V/cm), a wide bandgap (3.26 eV for 4H-polytype) and high electron saturation velocity

(2 x 107 cm/s) as shown in Table 1-1 [1]. These characteristics result in significantly

higher current densities, operating temperatures and breakdown voltage than comparable

Si devices and in lower switching and on-state losses.

A comparison of ideal breakdown voltages versus blocking layer doping

concentration (Figure 1-1) suggests that the more highly doped blocking layer (more than

10 times higher) provides lower resistance for SiC because more majority carriers are

present than for comparably rated Si devices. A comparison of voltage blocking layer

thickness for a given breakdown voltage (Figure 1-2) shows a thinner blocking layer (n-

~5 x 1015 cm-3) of SiC devices (1/10th that of Si devices) also contribute to the lowering of

specific on-resistance by a factor of 10. The combination of 1/10th the blocking layer

thickness with 10 times the doping concentration can yield a SiC device with a factor of

100 advantage in resistance compared to that of Si devices.

1

2

1014 1015 1016

101

102

103

104

SiC

Si

Idea

l bre

akdo

wn

volta

ge (V

)

Doping of the blocking layer (cm-3)

Figure 1-1 Comparison of the ideal breakdown voltage of Si and SiC devices for different doping levels.

3

103 104100

101

102

103

SiC

Si

Wid

th o

f vol

tage

blo

ckin

g la

yer

(µm

)

Ideal breakdown voltage (V)

Figure 1-2 Comparison of the blocking layer thickness as a function of the ideal breakdown voltage for SiC and Si.

4

Several figures of merit, specifically to quantify the intrinsic performance

potentials of unipolar and bipolar devices, have been proposed [2-5]. The most important

material parameter is the avalanche electric field, followed by thermal conductivity and

carrier mobility. The unipolar figures of merit are shown in Table 1-2 [1] where SiC and

AlN unipolar devices have been projected to have intrinsic device improvement of 80 to

30000 times over conventional Si [4]. Also, bipolar devices, such as pin junction rectifier

and GTO thyristors, are expected to have lower total power loss when the switching

frequencies exceed 1 and 30 kHz respectively [5]. Here, it is worth pointing out that BN

is the best among the Group III-nitrides for power devices because of its high thermal

conductivity and indirect bandgap. Furthermore, due to the higher carrier mobility and

more isotropic nature of its properties, 4H-SiC has become the polytype of choice [6].

1.2 Current Status of SiC Power Technology

The overall goal for power electronic circuits is to reduce power losses, volume,

weight, and, costs of the system [7]. These factors become significant for applications in

future military and commercial ships especially electric propulsion. The first SiC based

device was a light emitting diode fabricated in 1907 by H. J. Round. However, a more

intensive silicon carbide semiconductor material and device development has been

underway for nearly 35 years in United States, the former Soviet Union, Europe and

Asia. Only in the past 15 years with the input of substantial funding from the US DOD

community (BMDO, DARPA, and ONR) have we seen the development of SiC wafers

industry in the US able to produce single crystal substrates with lower defect density

capable of sustaining device development programs [8]. Today, there are three suppliers

of SiC wafers in US (CREE, Sterling and Litton Airtron), one in Europe and one in Japan

with additional companies evaluating the market potential [8]. Within the last five years,

5

Table 1-1 Physical properties of important semiconductors for high voltage power devices.

Table 1-2 Normalized unipolar figures of merit of important semiconductors for high voltage power devices.

6

commercial devices and applications have emerged. Specifically, SiC is used for blue and

green LEDs, Northrop-Grumman makes Static Induction Transistors for internal

applications, and CREE has announced their recent SiC Zero Recovery™ Rectifiers.

Due to its exceptional switching speed, a high operational temperature and a high

breakdown electric field, SiC is having a profound impact on the design, topology and

circuits used in the power electronics especially where space weight, power density and

thermal management issues dominate as in mobile platforms; on aircraft, on vehicles and

especially on ships.

There have been many funded programs carried out at universities, industry and

government laboratories to commercialize SiC power switching devices. These programs

are designed to address device processing and fabrication technology, device physics and

design, packaging and applications.

The most recent results in Schottky and PiN diodes demonstrated exceptional

switching speeds with little or no ringing. When SiC diodes were packaged with Si

switches to form a simple hybrid inverter circuit, nearly all the stored energy was

eliminated due to the fast turn-off/turn-on SiC diodes [8].

At this time, US has a large but distribute program in SiC power device technology,

sustained with DOD programs at universities and larger companies such as GE and

Northrop Grumman. Traditional semiconductor solid-state switch manufacturers are now

actively pursuing this technology. On the other hand, the more integrated European

power industry, ABB and Siemens are actively pursuing research in SiC technology at all

levels in an internally coordinated manner. In Asia, Japan has an active research program

in SiC power technology that is now becoming focused under a new initiative [8].

7

1.3 SiC Semiconductor Devices for Power Applications

Silicon carbide offers significant advantages for power-switching devices because

the critical field for avalanche breakdown is about ten times higher than in silicon. SiC

power devices have made remarkable progress in the past five years, demonstrating

currents in excess of 100 A and blocking voltages in excess of 19000 V [9]. Over the past

decade a number of new SiC-based power switching devices have been demonstrated

such as GTOs, MOSFETs, pn diodes and schottky diodes with results approaching or

exceeding the theoretical limits of Si. However, there is significant difference between

demonstrating prototype devices and establishing an economically viable commercial

product. Silicon has proven to be an extremely difficult material to displace, largely

because of economic factors, and it remains to be seen whether SiC can accomplish what

other semiconductor materials have failed to do.

There are significant new challenges emerging, both in material science and device

design as the SiC technology is developed. One of the unique features of SiC is its high

thermal stability compared to silicon. This has both advantages as well as disadvantages-

an advantage because of improved reliability and higher temperature operability, and a

disadvantage because many of the typical fabrication processes either do not occur at all

in SiC or require extremely high temperatures. The most challenging aspect of the

thermal stability is the fact that due to the phase equilibrium in the Si-C system, SiC does

not melt, but instead gradually sublimes at temperatures above 2000 K. This makes it

impossible to form large single-crystal ingots by pulling a seed crystal from a melt, as in

Czochralski process that produces 200-300 mm diameter silicon ingots. Instead a

modified sublimation process that is presently limited to 100 mm diameter ingots forms

SiC crystals. The process is expensive and difficult and SiC wafer costs are astronomical

8

compared to silicon. However, the advantages of SiC power devices are so great that the

higher cost of the starting material can still be offset in certain cases, allowing SiC to

compete directly with silicon in specialized device markets.

The evolution of SiC power-switching technology can be divided into three phases:

prototype device demonstration, device scale-up, and commercial production. Many

types of SiC power devices are well along in the prototype demonstration phase and

several have demonstrated performance measures far superior to silicon. These include

rectifiers with blocking voltages above 19 kV [10], power metal-oxide-semiconductor

field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) [11], and bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) [12] with

performance figures 100 times higher than in silicon, and gate turn-off (GTO) thyristors

blocking over 3 kV and switching over 60 kW. Several of these devices are in the scale-

up phase, with terminal currents in excess of 100 A already demonstrated in single-device

packaged rectifiers [13].

1.3.1 Material Availability and Quality

SiC has a large number of different crystallographic forms or poly-types. Of these,

6H-SiC has the most developed growth technology on account of its relatively large

volume usage as a substrate for GaN blue LEDs. However, 4H-SiC is the preferred

material for many power applications owing to its nearly ten times higher on-axis

mobility compared to 6H-SiC. At present commercial 4H-SiC wafers are available in

sizes up to 50 mm diameter while 6H-SiC wafers are available in sizes up to 75mm

diameter, with 100 mm at the research stage. Substrates are available in both low

resistivity (n- and p-type) and semi-insulating forms [14]. However, the moderate to high

resistivity substrates desirable for high voltage devices is not available. Devices are

therefore, fabricated on homoepitaxial layers, which are routinely grown to thicknesses of

9

over 100 µm with doping densities as low as 1014 cm-3 using hot wall chemical vapor

deposition (CVD) [15]. High-level carrier lifetimes for this material are typically of the

order of several hundred nanoseconds [16] making it suitable for the fabrication of

devices with voltage blocking capabilities approaching 10 kV.

Historically, the major difficulty with SiC has been the presence of micropipes in

the substrates and epilayers. It is generally conceded that micropipes are the major

obstacles in the production of high-performance SiC devices. Micropipes are defects

unique to the growth of SiC and they are physical holes that penetrate through the entire

crystal. They are replicated into the device epitaxial layers and become “killer” defects if

they intersect the active region of SiC devices. However, the reports on material growth

with micropipe densities as low as 0.1/cm2 at research level (reduced from over 1000/cm2

in just a few years) [14], indications are that SiC is now adequate to fabricate devices

several millimeters square with reasonable yield [17, 18]. Indications are that a

dislocation density of less than 103 cm-2 is desirable for fabrication of power devices [18]

(current values are typically around 104 cm-2). A further difficulty concerns the

uniformity of epilayer doping and thickness across the wafer (typical results show 4 %

standard deviation in doping) and the uniformity of doping between runs (typically 40%)

[14].

1.3.2 SiC Processing Technology

SiC has a relatively mature processing technology. All the basic process steps, such

as doping (by implantation and during epitaxy), etching (plasma techniques), oxide

growth, Schottky and ohmic contacts have been successfully demonstrated [19]. There

10

are, however, several key processing issues that currently limit the performance of

fabricated devices.

1.3.2.1 Ion implantation

Ion implantation is employed widely for local p-type and n-type doping of SiC. The

most frequently used implanted ions are aluminum (Al) and boron (B) for p-type,

nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) for n-type. Key issues in SiC implantation technology

include the reduction of lattice damage occurring during implantation, successful

electrical activation of the dopants and preservation of good surface morphology.

Performing the implantation at elevated temperature is a common way to reduce the

lattice damage and reduce the requirements for subsequent annealing [20]. Typical

implantation temperatures are: 400 oC for Al [21], 500 oC for N [22], 800 oC for P [23].

These temperatures are sufficiently high to obtain good electrical conductivity after

annealing but not so high as to cause surface dissociation and/or large vacancy clusters

[24].

The annealing condition must be precisely determined, both for recording the

crystal and diffusing the dopants into substantial sites. In addition, evaporation of both

silicon and dopants must be avoided if the surface stoichiometry is to be preserved. This

is particularly important in cases where the surface layer forms an active part of the

device, for example in MOSFET and MESFET channel regions. There are two main

approaches to preserve the surface: (i) material encapsulation with AlN, graphite [25]; (ii)

increased Si partial pressure in the furnace reactor, either with silane gas [26] or with SiC

coated pieces [27]. Several authors have given results for optimum electrical activation

[28-30]. In all cases, it appears that good electrical activation is only possible if the

annealing temperature exceeds 1550 oC.

11

1.3.2.2 Oxides on SiC

One of the principal benefits of silicon carbide is that it oxidizes to form a stable

surface layer of silicon dioxide releasing carbon dioxide in the process [31]. However,

the detailed properties of the oxide and in particular the interface between the SiC and the

SiO2 are significantly different from Si [31].

The oxidation rate is crystal-orientation dependent and is far slower on the Si face

than the C face, though, in general, much better properties are found for the oxide on the

Si face. Oxidation temperature are normally around 1100 oC and unlike Si, a post

oxidation anneal in a hydrogen ambient is usually reported to have little effect at reducing

interface state density [32]. Interface state density on p-type material can be reduced to

levels below 1011 cm-2eV-1 in the lower half of the gap by the use of re-oxidation anneal

below 1000 oC in a wet ambient [33]. However, this treatment does not seem to improve

the density of states in the upper half of the gap [34]. Interface state densities on the 4H

polytype rise very rapidly towards the conduction band edge, typically exceeding 1013

cm-2eV-1, whereas on 6H the density is an order of magnitude lower. This has been

ascribed to a carbon related acceptor that is located just below the conduction band edge

for 4H but within the conduction band for 6H [35]. These defects have not been

successfully removed by any standard surface treatment or post oxidation anneal.

The best N channel inversion mode MOSFETs fabricated on 6H show electron

mobilities of ~100 cm2/Vs with a negative temperature coefficient, whereas 4H shows

mobilities of at best 25 cm2/Vs or lower [36, 37]. The fluctuation in potential resulting

from the charge in the interface states near the conduction band edge appear to be

responsible for these low values of mobility, particularly for 4H [38].

12

The breakdown and reliability properties of SiO2 are crucial for all MOS devices,

but unfortunately the situation is not as favorable as it is for Si. The dielectric constant of

SiC is ~10 whereas it is ~3.9 for SiO2, so any normal surface field will be ~2.5 times

higher in the oxide than the SiC. Hence to gain the full benefit of the 2.5 MV/cm

breakdown field of SiC, the oxide must withstand 6.25 MV/cm, which is higher than is

reliably usable, even on silicon [39]. High field stressing of oxides has shown that oxides

grown in a wet ambient, breakdown at lower fields than dry grown oxides [40], and that

extrapolated time-dependent dielectric-breakdown lifetimes of 10 years can only be

obtained on n-type at fields less than 5 MV/cm at room temperature. Studies have shown

that the lifetime for oxides drops rapidly at elevated temperatures, with a vulnerability to

negative bias-stress instability [41]. Electron injection into the oxide is more efficient

than for Si due to the lower barrier [32]. In addition, the barrier for injection of holes is

much lower than in Si, which is unfortunate since holes are particularly damaging to

oxides [42].

1.3.2.3 Contacts

Ohmic contacts to both n and p-type material have been demonstrated for 4H-SiC

with specific contact resistivities of the order of 10-5 Ωcm2 [43, 44]. To achieve this, it

has proved necessary to use rapid thermal annealing (RTA) of the wafer at temperatures

as high as 1400 oC. The majority of contacts are based around Ni and Al (for n- and p-

type, respectively) although these are generally not stable at temperatures above 400 oC.

To take advantage of the full potential for high temperature operation of 4H-SiC devices,

contacts that are thermally stable up to 600 oC over long periods are required. Recent

work based on Al/Ni/W/Au contact structures on p-type 4H-SiC have shown longevity of

over 100 h at 600 oC with a contact resistance of 10-3 Ωcm2 [45]. Other works have

13

shown similar results using a variety of materials including TaC [46] and AlSi [47]

alloys.

Several groups have reported excellent quality room temperature Schottky diodes,

with the barrier height dependent on the metal chosen. This demonstrates that the fermi

level is not pinned at the surface of the 4H-SiC. Values of ΦB vary from 1.10 eV (Ti) to

1.73 eV (Au), which are markedly larger than those observed on Si or GaAs. This

increase in ΦB makes SiC an ideal material for high-voltage, high-temperature, low –

leakage current Schottky diodes. Surface preparation, prior to deposition of the Schottky

contact, has been shown to be a key factor in achieving good performance with sacrificial

thermal oxidation being the optimum technique [48].

1.3.2.4 Edge termination and passivation

Many techniques applied to Si devices are also applicable to SiC. For example,

field plates [49, 50], guard rings and junction termination extensions [51, 52] have all

been used to good effect. Another simple technique involves the implantation of a high

dose of inert ions (either Ar [53] or B [54]). In this case the damage caused by the

implant causes a high resistivity region to be formed close to the surface, which acts in a

manner similar to semi-insulating poly crystalline silicon (SIPOS). The reverse leakage

performance of Ar and B implanted edge terminations may be improved by low

temperature (600 oC) annealing [55]. Passivation of SiC surface is not trivial and has yet

to be fully understood. The effects of inadequate passivation have been observed in

microwave MESFETs, where this leads to degradation of gain under CW operation [56].

Power switching devices, on the other hand, appear to perform well with conventional Si

passivation treatments such as polyamide.

CHAPTER 2 SILICON CARBIDE SCHOTTKY RECTIFIERS

Silicon carbide device technology has seen a tremendous development over last

five years. The technology once envisioned as a substitute to silicon technology has been

realized to practice. The feasibility of SiC devices has been shown for many different

types of devices, the development of a working production technology has started, yield,

reliability and costs now being the key issues. The high cost of SiC substrates at present

poses a major challenge for the technology to enter the device market. However, the

exceptional properties of the material promote a tremendous interest in some of the prime

applications like power electronics and high temperature sensor technology. The other

examples are in transportation and manufacturing sector where high efficiency needs

entails strong research efforts towards development of advanced power management and

control electronics. Central to this effort is the development of the solid-state devices

capable of delivering large currents and withstanding high voltages, without the need of

sophisticated cooling systems [56].

2.1 Experimental Characteristics of 4H-SiC Schottky Rectifiers

2.1.1 Introduction

SiC has shown outstanding potential for high power, high temperature electronics

in advanced communications and radar systems, sensor and control systems, utility power

switching and traction motor control [57-68]. The wide bandgap (3.25 eV for the 4H-poly

type), availability of doped substrates of either electrical conductivity type and high

thermal conductivity (up to 4.9 W/cmK) of SiC make it a preferred material for these

14

15

applications [69-77]. These characteristics result in significantly higher current densities,

operating temperatures and breakdown voltages than comparable Si devices and in lower

switching and on-state losses. There have been major advances in the bulk and epitaxial

growth of SiC in the past 5 years or so, along with improvements in device design and

fabrication. Those have resulted in very impressive performance from SiC power metal-

oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs), bipolar transistors and p-i-n and

Schottky rectifiers [78-93].

2.1.2 Experimental Methods

The starting substrates were n+ (1019 cm-3) 4H-SiC. Approximately 10µm of lightly

n-type (n ~ 5 x 1015 cm-3) 4H-SiC was grown on these substrate by vapor phase epitaxy,

followed by ~ 500 Å of thermal SiO2. A full-area back contact of e-beam deposited Ni

annealed at 970 0C was used for contact to the substrate. SiO2 layers deposited by plasma

enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) were employed as a part of the dielectric

overlap edge termination [94]. Holes were opened in the SiO2 stack by a combination of

dry and wet etching and a Schottky contact of e-beam evaporated (1000 Å thick) Ni

patterned by lift-off. The contact diameter ranged from 100-1000 µm. A schematic of the

completed structure and an optical micrograph of a processed 2 inch diameter wafer are

shown in Figure 2-1.

A key feature of achieving good Schottky performance is the quality of the ohmic

contacts. The contact resistivity ~1.2 x 10-6 Ωcm2 was obtained from transmission line

measurements of the Ni backside ohmic for 970 0C, 3 min anneals under a flowing N2

ambient in a Heatpulse 610 furnace. This is slightly higher than reported for annealed Ni

16

PECVD SiNx

Thermal SiO2Epi n- SiC (tepi=10 µm) Substrate n+ 4H/SiC (n+= 1e19)

Ni

Ni

Figure 2-1 Cross-section of SiC Schottky rectifiers (top) and photograph of completed 2 inch diameter wafer (bottom).

17

on 6H-SiC substrates (7 x 10-7 Ωcm2) [95], which have a slightly smaller bandgap (3.02

eV) than the 4H-polytype used here.

2.1.3 Results and Discussion

Figure 2-2 shows some reverse current-voltage (I-V) characteristics measured at

25oC schottky contact diameter. Note that the reverse breakdown voltage decreases

significantly with increasing contact size. This is due to the increased probability of

having crystal defects in the active region of the device as the area is increased. The

production of SiC substrates with large, defect free areas still represents the biggest

challenge to widespread use of power rectifiers in this materials system. Note also the

very low reverse leakage currents in the rectifiers at biases below breakdown. In this bias

regime, the reverse current was proportional to the length of the rectifying contact

perimeter, suggesting surface contributions were the most important in this voltage range.

At biases closer to breakdown, the current was proportional to the area of the rectifying

contact. Under these conditions, the main contribution to the reverse current is from

rectifiers with a 7000 Å thick SiO2 dielectric overlap layer, as a function of the under this

contact, i.e. from the bulk of the material.

A more detailed view of the reverse I-V characteristic from a 154 µm diameter

rectifier is shown in Figure 2-3 (top), along with a map of VB values measured over a

quarter of a 2-inch diameter wafer (bottom). The overall shape of the I-V curve is similar

to past reports for Ni/4H-SiC rectifiers [90], in which it was concluded that the origin of

the reverse current was due to a combination of both thermionic field emission and field

emission. Note that yield of rectifiers with VB > 750 V is over 50 % and with VB > 600 V

is over 75 %.

18

-800 -600 -400 -200 010-12

10-10

10-8

10-6

10-4

100 µm diode 500 µm diode 1000 µm diode

Cur

rent

(A)

Bias Voltage (V)

Figure 2-2 Reverse I-V characteristics at 25 0C from Schottky rectifiers with different contact diameters.

19

-1000 -800 -600 -400 -200 010-11

10-10

10-9

10-8

10-7

10-6

10-5

SiC Diode 5000 Å SiO2Dia: 154 µm

Cur

rent

(A)

Bias Voltage (V)

520 V 600 V

860 V 980 V800 V 900 V

520V940 V860 V820 V>1000 V

830 V660 V640 V750 V810 V

810V>1000 V930 V580 V400 V

560 V 820 V>1000 V 720 V 740 V

300 V>1000 V820 V750 V600 V

290 V980 V730 Vdamaged500 V

720 V

Figure 2-3 Reverse I-V characteristic from 154 µm diameter rectifier (top) and map of reverse breakdown voltage from a quarter of a 2 inch diameter wafer (bottom).

20

Simulations of the rectifier performance were carried out using the MEDICITM

code. The performance of the structure of Figure 2-1 (top) was simulated for different

oxide thicknesses and a metal overlap of 10 µm onto this oxide, as used experimentally.

Figure 2-4 shows a comparison of the experimental and theoretical results. Note that the

VB values obtained on the real devices are roughly half of that expected from the

simulations. The later do not take into account the presence of crystalline defects,

including micropipes in the SiC. This difference emphasizes the importance of crystal

quality in determining the performance of the rectifiers.

The reverse breakdown voltage is related to the epilayer doping (ND) through the

relationship [96]:

NEV

D

CB e2

2∈=

where ε is the dielectric constant of SiC, EC the critical field for breakdown and e the

electronic charge. Figure 2-5 shows our experimental data point for VB at a epilayer

doping concentration of 5 x 1015 cm-3 for 10 µm thick layers, along with the expected

results from the simulations with different carrier concentrations. Note that there is not

much improvement expected for decreasing the carrier concentration below 5 x 1015 cm-3

since the layer will be depleted under those conditions.

Our experimental devices still have performance limited by material defect density

rather than purity. The VB values obtained in the simulations were found to increase

linearly with SiO2 thickness from 2500 Å to 17500 Å and saturated thereafter.

21

2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000 11000

-1500

-1400

-1300

-1200

-1100

-1000

-900

-800

-700

SiC Schottky DiodesDoping n:5e15 cm-3

tepi:10 µm

Experimental results Simulated results

Bre

akdo

wn

Vol

tage

(V)

Dielectric thickness (Å)

Figure 2-4 Comparison of breakdown voltage obtained from simulations and the fabricated devices.

22

However, thicknesses above ~5000 Å are difficult to achieve in practice because of

the long deposition times. The forward current characteristics of a Schottky rectifier are

dominated by the barrier height of the metal on the semiconductor and by series

resistance concentrations. The barrier height (φB) for Ni on 4H-SiC is ~1.3eV [90]. The

forward voltage drop, VF, is related to the barrier height and on-state resistance, RON,

through the relation:

JRTAJV FONB

FF n

enkT .)ln( 2* ++= Φ

where n is the diode ideality factor, k is Boltzmann’s constant, T the absolute

temperature, e the electric charge, JF the forward current density and A* is Richardson’s

constant. The value of RON is a function of epilayer thickness and doping. Figure 2-6

shows forward I-V characteristics in both linear (top) and log (bottom) form. A maximum

forward current of 2 A was obtained from these devices, and was limited by our

experimental system. The turn-on voltage was ~1.82 V at a forward current density of

100 Acm-2 and the on-state resistance was ~0.36 mΩcm2. The diode ideality was 1.13 at

25 0C, which is comparable to past results for Ni metallization [90].

To place our results in context, Figure 2-7 shows a theoretical plot of specific on-

resistance as a function of VB for Si, 4H-SiC and 6H-SiC, along with some experimental

data. The lines are derived from the relation [84-96]:

EVR

C

BON 3

24

∈=

µ

23

1014 1015 1016 1017102

103

Simulation Results Experimental Result

SiC Schottky Diode tepi=10 µmtdielectric=1.0 µm

Bre

akdo

wn

Vol

tage

(V)

Carrier Concentration (cm-3)

Figure 2-5 Calculated reverse breakdown voltage as a function of epilayer doping.

24

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.50.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

SiC Schottky DiodesSiO2: 7000 ÅDiode Dia.: 1000 µm

Cur

rent

(A)

Bias Voltage (V)

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0100

101

102

SiC Schottky DiodesSiO2: 7000 ÅDiode Dia.: 1000 µm

Cur

rent

Den

sity

(A/c

m2 )

Bias Voltage (V)

Figure 2-6 Forward I-V characteristics in linear (top) and log (bottom) scales.

25

Figure 2-7 Specific on-resistance as a function of breakdown voltage.

26

where µ is the electron mobility in the epilayer. Note that the SiC rectifiers are expected

to have either much lower on-resistance at a given breakdown voltage than Si, or

equivalently a much larger breakdown voltage for a given on-resistance. Our results are

close to the theoretical minimum on-resistance for the VB’s obtained and indicate that the

device processing produces no major degradation in the electrical properties of the SiC.

2.2 Ni Contacts to N-Type 4H-SiC

Superior electrical and thermal properties of SiC make it promising material for

high temperature and high frequency electronics. However, it is widely appreciated that

the optimal performance of microwave devices is related to the quality of ohmic contacts.

Low contact resistance and high temperature stability are required [97]. Nickel is one of

the most popular materials used in advanced aerospace systems [98] and good nickel

ohmic contacts on n-SiC have been already demonstrated [99]. The popularity of Ni

contacts to SiC is due to its reproducibly low contact resistance and good temperature

stability [100]. In our study, we could see no appreciable degradation of the contacts up

to a temperature of 225 oC.

Annealing the contacts produces low ohmic contact resistivities on highly doped

substrates. For n-type SiC, low contact resistivities (<10-5 Ω cm-2) have been reported in

the past [101]. We obtained a contact resistivity of 1.2 x 10-6 Ω cm2, in our studies. A

study on the interfacial reactions between Ni and n-type SiC suggests that silicides such

as Ni31Si12 and Ni2Si are produced at an intermediate temperature range of 500-600 oC

[102]. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS)

showed that the interfacial reaction forming Ni31Si12 and Ni2Si began at 500 oC [103], and

the Ni2Si phase remained up to 900 oC. The ohmic contact formation was thought to be

27

due to the formation of Ni2Si phase, even the Ni2Si formed at a temperature as low as 600

oC [101]. It is essential to optimize the annealing conditions to obtain contacts with least

contact resistivity. In our studies we have studied the effect of temperature, ambience and

time on the contact resistivity of Ni-SiC ohmic contacts. Figure 2-8 shows the effect of

annealing temperature (top-left), time (top-right) and annealing ambient (bottom) on the

contact resistivity obtained from transmission line measurements of the Ni backside

ohmic. A minimum value of ~1.2 x 10-6 Ωcm2 was achieved for 970 0C, 3 min anneals

under a flowing N2 ambient in a Heatpulse 610 furnace. This is slightly higher than

reported for annealed Ni on 6H-SiC substrates (7 x 10-7 Ωcm2) [95], which have a

slightly smaller bandgap (3.02 eV) than the 4H-polytype used here.

2.3 Stability of SiC Schottky Rectifiers to Rapid Thermal Annealing

2.3.1. Introduction

There is currently a lot of interest in the application of SiC power rectifiers to high

current switching in the >30A range because of the high thermal conductively

(~4.9W/cm·K) and large bandgap relative to Si [104-112]. The advantage in materials

properties mean that on-state resistance, RON, for a 4H-SiC rectifier can be over 100

times smaller than that of a Si rectifier at the same breakdown voltage, VB, since RON is

given by 4VB/µεEC3 (where µ is the electron mobility, ε the permittivity, and EC the

critical field for breakdown) [87].

There are numerous situations in which high temperature annealing might be

employed in the fabrication of SiC rectifiers, including activation of implanted dopants or

reduction of reverse leakage current in self-aligned Ar+-implanted edge terminations

28

950 960 970 980 990 10001.1x10-6

1.5x10-6

1.9x10-6

2.3x10-6

Anneal time: 3 minAnneal gas: N2

Rc (O

hm-c

m2 )

Temperature (°C)

2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.01.0x10-6

1.4x10-6

1.8x10-6

2.2x10-6 Anneal temperature: 970 °CAnneal gas: N2

Rc (O

hm-c

m2 )

Time (min)

N2 Vacuum Ar1.1x10-6

1.3x10-6

1.5x10-6

1.7x10-6

Anneal time:3 minAnneal temp:970 °C

Rc (O

hm-c

m2 )

Anneal Gas

Figure 2-8 Contact resistivity of Ni ohmic contact on n+ 4H-SiC as a function of annealing temperature (top), annealing time (center) and annealing ambient (bottom).

29

[113-115]. In the latter case, Ar+ implantation is used to create a high-resistance region

around the contact periphery in order to spread the electric field distribution and avoid

breakdown due to field crowding. While this process does increase reverse breakdown

voltage, it also increases leakage current. Several studies have examined the effect of

anneals up to 700ºC for reducing this leakage current [114].

In this study we report the stability of 4H-SiC Schottky power rectifiers to rapid

thermal annealing treatments in the temperature range 700 - 1100ºC with the contacts

already in place. This is of interest for defining the stability of devices in which the Ni

rectifying contact is used as a self-aligned mask for implant edge termination. The

performance of the rectifiers is found to show a general improvement for anneals

≤1000ºC.

2.3.2 Experimental Methods

The Schottky contacts were fabricated on the wafer as described in section 2.1.2.

The annealing for these contacts was performed in a Heatpulse 610T System under

flowing N2 ambient at temperatures of 700 – 1100 ºC for 60 - 240 sec. The current-

voltage (I-V) characteristics were measured before and after this procedure. Prior to

annealing, the typical on-state resistance was 0.8 mΩ·cm2, the reverse breakdown voltage

(VB) ~450V and the forward turn-on voltage was 2.5V at 100Acm-2.

2.3.3 Results and Discussion

The reverse bias characteristics showed a general increase in current for anneals ≤

1000˚C, while the forward I-V characteristics also shoed significant changes under these

conditions, as shown in Figure 2-9. Note the decrease in turn-on voltage as the anneal

temperature increase. The forward current density, JF, can be expressed as:

30

−

−= 1exp2**

nkTeV

kTe

TAJ BF

φ

where A** is the Richardson’s constant for SiC, k is Boltzmann’s constant, e is the

electric charge, φ B is the barrier height for Ni on 4H-SiC, V is the applied voltage, n is

the ideality factor, and T is the measurement temperature. The data in Figure 2-9 are

consistent with a reduction in φ B. On 6H-SiC, Ni was observed to form Ni2Si at

temperature beginning at ~600˚C [116], eventually leading to ohmic behavior. In lower

temperature anneals, Ni/6H-SiC diodes showed a reduction of leakage current through

removal of low-barrier secondary diodes in parallel to the primary diode [113]. Our

measure φ B was ~1.4eV prior to annealing, which is consistent with past reports [116-

118]. It is likely that the reduced turn-on voltage observed in Figure 2-9 is the result of

silicide formation, as suggested previously [114]. The on/off current ratio was 1.5 ×105 at

3V/-450V in control samples and increased by a maximum of ~20% after optimum

annealing at 700˚C. The forward current characteristics of a SiC Schottky rectifier are

dominated by the Ni barrier height and by series resistance contributions and is related to

φ B and RON through the relationship:

FONBF

F JRnTA

Je

nkTV ++

= φ2**ln

With annealing, the value of φ B decreased as described above, but RON showed

improvement (Figure 2-10). Once again the annealing durations had to be kept<120 sec at

the highest temperature in order to retain some acceptable rectifying behavior of the top

Ni contact.

31

Figure 2-11 shows the effect of annealing time at 900˚C on the forward I-V

characteristics (top), VF (center), and RON (bottom). Note that the largest anneal (240 sec)

produced essentially ohmic behavior. Examples of the effect of the annealing duration on

the top Ni contact morphology are shown in the optical micrograph of Figure 2-12. It is

clear that there is already a strong metallurgical reaction between the Ni and the SiC at

1000˚C for 60 sec. To obtain the lowest ohmic contact resistivity for annealed Ni contacts

requires ~3 min at this temperature, and after 60 sec the contact still retains some

rectifying behavior. Note also the dark appearance of the contact after annealing. Auger

Electron Spectroscopy showed high levels of carbon present in these reacted contacts,

suggesting the reaction can be written as:

2Ni + SiC → Ni2Si + C

Figure 2-13 shows the measurement temperature dependence of the change in VF

(top) and RON (bottom) for samples annealed at 900˚C. There is little significant change

in VF while the improvement in RON decrease with increasing temperature as current

transport over the barrier. Arrhenius plots of the forward current indicated a barrier height

of ~1.14 eV after the 900˚C anneal, consistent with the observed increase in current after

annealing. The intersection of the lines with the temperature axis indicated a constant

electrically active contact area equivalent to ~9% of the physical contact area. This is

consistent with the expected behavior for thermionic emission still being the dominant

transport mechanism after 900˚C annealing.

32

2.3.4 Summary and Conclusions

The main points of our study may be summarized as follows:

• High voltage Ni/4H-SiC Schottky rectifiers using a simple SiO2/metal edge termination method show near-ideal forward characteristics (ideality factor, on-state resistance).

• The reverse breakdown voltage is approximately half that expected from a simple model simulation and decreases as the device area is increased.

• The reverse current appears to be dominated by surface combinations at low bias and by bulk combinations near breakdown.

• Both thermionic field emission and field emission mechanisms appear to be present. The yield of 750 V, 2 A devices was above 50 %.

• For high temperature anneals, the Ni rectifying contact becomes ohmic, with severe degradation of the contact morphology. The forward current characteristics are still dominated by thermionic emission until the onset of ohmic behavior.

• The benefits of annealing at moderate temperature include a decrease in forward turn-on voltage and an increase in the on/off current ratio.

• The reasons for those improvements may include annealing of defects or reduction of interfacial oxides between the Ni rectifying contact and the SiC.

• The use of more thermally stable rectifying contact metallization would allow higher annealing temperatures and possibly more improvement in device performance.

33

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.00.000

0.005

0.010

0.015

0.020

0.025

0.030

60 secanneals 1000 °C 900 °C

Control

Cur

rent

(A)

Bias Voltage (V)

Figure 2-9 Forward I-V characteristics as a function of anneal temperature for 60 sec anneals.

34

700 750 800 850 900 950 1000 1050 11000.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

60 secanneals

∆RO

N (10

-3)

Temperature (°C)

Figure 2-10 Change in RON as a function of anneal temperature for 60 sec anneals.

35

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.00.000

0.005

0.010

0.015

0.020

0.025

0.030

0.035

240 secs 60 secs Control

Cur

rent

(A)

Bias Voltage (V)

40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260-2.0

-1.9

-1.8

-1.7

-1.6

-1.5

-1.4

-1.3

-1.2

-1.1

∆VF

Anneal Time (Seconds)

40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 2600.00

0.25

0.50

0.75

1.00

1.25

1.50

1.75

2.00

2.25

∆RO

N(10

-3)

Anneal Time (Seconds)

Figure 2-11 Forward I-V characteristics (top) and change in VF (center) and RON (bottom) as a function of anneal time at 900˚C.

36

Figure 2-12 Optical micrographs of Ni contacts before (top) and after annealing at 1000˚C for 60 sec (center) or 120 sec (bottom).

37

20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160-0.55

-0.50

-0.45

-0.40

-0.35

-0.30

-0.25

-0.20

∆VF

Measurement Temperature (°C)

20 40 60 80 100 120 140 1600.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

2.0

∆RO

N(10

-3)

Measurement Temperature (°C)

Figure 2-13 Change in VF (top) and RON (bottom) as a function of measurement temperature after 900˚C, 60 sec anneals.

CHAPTER 3 IRRADIATION AND PASSIVATION EFFECTS ON 4H-SIC RECTIFERS

3.1 High Energy Proton Irradiation Effects on SiC Schottky Rectifiers

3.1.1 Introduction

SiC power rectifiers with reverse breakdown voltages in the 300-1200 V range are

of current interest for a number of applications, including traction motor control, sensors

and advanced communications (including broad-band satellite transmission) and radar

systems [105-108]. In particular, 4H-SiC is attractive because of its larger bandgap and

higher and more anisotropic mobility relative to other SiC polytypes [119]. The 4H-SiC

has numerous advantages over Si for power device applications, including much larger

critical breakdown field, lower on-state resistance at a given voltage and higher thermal

conductivity. While a significant amount of work has been reported on ion-beam induced

damage and annealing in SiC [120-123], much less is known about radiation damage in

SiC-based devices. Recent results have shown that properly passivated SiC metal-oxide

semiconductor field effect transistors have good tolerance to MRad doses of 60Co γ-rays

[124]. One would expect SiC to be relatively resistant to radiation damage compared to

materials such as GaAs based on the empirical observation that the displacement

threshold energy for atoms in semiconductor is inversely proportional to lattice constant

[125] (a = 0.31 nm, c = 1.03 nm for 4H-SiC compared to a = 0.5653 nm for the zinc

blende GaAs).

There is particular interest in the response of SiC rectifiers to high-energy proton

irradiation because of the potential applications in satellites. In this work we reported on

38

39

the effects of 40 MeV proton irradiation of 4H-SiC rectifiers, at doses corresponding to

more than 10 years in low-earth orbit. The reverse leakage current increases by

approximately a factor of two under these conditions, while ideality factor, on-state

resistance and forward turn-on voltage all increase by ≤ 75%. These results are consistent

with creation of electron traps by protons that traverse the active region of the rectifiers.

3.1.2 Experimental Methods

The Schottky rectifiers with diameter of 154 µm were fabricated in the same way

as described in section 2.1.2. The devices were irradiated at the Texas A&M cyclotron

with 40 MeV protons at fluences from 5 × 107-5 × 109 cm-2, with the highest fluence

being comparable to at least 10 years exposure in low earth orbit. The projected range of

the protons is >50 µm in SiC. The irradiated devices were measured approximately 2

days after exposure.

3.1.3 Results and Discussion

Figure 3-1 (top) shows reverse current voltage (I-V) characteristics before and

after a proton fluence of 5 × 109 cm-2. The basic shape of the characteristic is unchanged

and shows only an increase in the magnitude of the reverse leakage current. Figure 3-1

(bottom) shows the percentage increase in reverse current measured at –250V, as a

function of the proton fluence. We suggest the creation of generation-recombination

centers related to atomic displacements created by the incoming protons is the main

mechanism for the increased leakage current, based on both this data and what follows

later in this section.

The forward I-V characteristics before and after proton irradiation at fluence of 5

x 109 cm-2 are shown at the top of Figure 3-2. There is an increase in low-bias (< 1V)

40

current consistent with the introduction of recombination centers associated with proton-

induced displacement damage. At higher forward voltages, the current is decreased.

Figure 3-2 (bottom) shows the magnitude of the decrease (measured at a forward voltage

of 2 V) as a function of the proton fluence. Note the percentage decrease in current is ~

6% after a fluence corresponding to more than a year in low earth orbit and 42% after

more than 10 years. The Schottky barrier height was extracted from the relationship:

]1))[(exp(2** −Φ

−=nkTeV

kTe B

F TAJ

where JF is the forward current density at voltage V, A** is the Richardson’s constant for

4H-SiC, T the absolute measurement temperature, e the electronic charge, ΦB the barrier

height for Ni on 4H-SiC, n the ideality factor and k the Boltzmann’s constant. The

extracted values were 1.32 ± 0.06 eV for both control and irradiated rectifiers, which is

consistent with past reports for Ni on 4H-SiC [54].

The forward voltage drop for a Schottky rectifier, VF, is related to the barrier

height and on-state resistance, RON, through:

JRTAJV FON

FF n

enkT

+Φ+= )ln( 2**

VF is usually defined as the voltage at which JF is 100 A.cm-2. Figure 3-3 shows

the increases in VF, n and RON as a function of proton fluence. The values in the

unirradiated control rectifiers were VF = 2.4V, n = 1.15 and RON = 3.7 × 10-4 Ωcm2. In

each case, the values of these parameters increase with increasing proton fluence. The

results are consistent with a net reduction in carrier density in the depletion region of the

rectifiers through the introduction of traps and recombination centers associated with

proton damage.

41

3.2 Influence of PECVD of SiO2 Passivation Layers on 4H-SiC Schottky Rectifiers

3.2.1 Introduction

There is great current interest in the development of manufacturable SiC power

rectifiers in the 300-1000 V, 25-50 A range for use in traction motor control, sensor and

control systems and the drive train of hybrid electrical vehicles [119-126]. Numerous

reports have shown the potential of both SiC Schottky and p-i-n rectifiers for these

applications [84, 87]. Record breakdown voltage (12.3 kV) and forward current (130 A)

results have been achieved for these devices [87]. The main focus now is to understand

the effect of crystal growth and device processing steps in the performance of SiC

rectifiers, in an attempt to push the devices into a robust manufacturing mode. One of the

important fabrication steps is the deposition of the thick dielectric layers for use as

surface passivation and as a part of the metal overlap edge termination. These layers are

generally deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) using

SiH4-based chemistries and therefore the surface of the SiC is subject to both energetic

ion bombardment and a high flux of atomic hydrogen. The former can create surface and

bulk traps that degrade the electrical properties of semiconductors while the later can etch

the surface through the reaction:

SiC + 8H SiH4 + CH4

as well as passivate dopants in the near-surface region. Both donors (D) and acceptors

(A) can be passivated through the formation of neutral complexes with hydrogen,

according to following mechanisms:

D+ + H- (DH)0

A- + H+ (DH)0

42

-500 -400 -300 -200 -100 010-11

10-10

10-9

10-8

10-7

10-6

10-5

10-4

Post-irradiation Pre-irradiation

dose: 5x109 p/cm2

SiC Schottky diodeSiO2:7000 ÅDia.: 1000 µm

Cur

rent

(A)

Bias Voltage (V)

107 108 109 1010

100

101

102

103

SiC Schottky diodeSiO2:7000 ÅDia.: 1000 µm

% in

crea

se in

I L (-25

0V)

Proton Dose (cm-2)

Figure 3-1 Reverse I-V characteristics from 4H-SiC Schottky rectifiers before and after

proton irradiation at a dose of 5 x 109 cm-2 (top) and percentage increase in reverse leakage at –250V (bottom).

43

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0

10-2

10-1

100

dose: 5x109 p/cm2

pre-irradiated post-irradiated

SiC Schottky diodeSiO2:7000 ÅDia.: 1000 µm

Cur

rent

(A)

Bias Voltage (V)

107 108 109 1010

0

10

20

30

40

50

SiC Schottky diodeSiO2:7000 ÅDia.: 1000 µm

% d

ecre

ase

in I F (2

V)

Proton Dose (cm-2)

Figure 3-2 Forward I-V characteristics from 4H-SiC Schottky rectifiers before and after

proton irradiation at a dose of 5 x 109 cm-2 (top) and percentage decrease in forward current at 2V (bottom).

44

107 108 109 10100.0

0.5

1.0

∆n

Proton Dose (cm-2)

107 108 109 10100

1

2

3

4

∆ R

ONx

10-4

Ω cm

2

Proton Dose (cm-2)

107 108 109 10100.0

0.5

1.0

∆V

F (V)

Proton Dose (cm-2)

Figure 3-3 Numerical change in values of n (top), RON (center) and VF (bottom) as a function of proton fluence.

45

In this study we report on the effects of PECVD SiO2 layers on the performance

of Ni/4H-SiC Schottky rectifiers. We also identify optimum deposition conditions under

which there is minimal degradation of the device performance.

3.2.2 Experimental Methods

The Schottky rectifiers with a diameter of 154 µm were fabricated in the same

way as described in section 2.1.2. PECVD of thin (~200 Å) SiO2 films were performed at

a substrate temperature of 250 0C using 2% SiH4 and N2O at a total flow rate of 600

sccm. The process pressure was raised from 600-900 mTorr, the N2O percentage of the

total flow rate from 5 to 50% and the rf power (13.56 MHz) varied from 25-400W. The

SiO2 layers were thin enough that we could probe through them to the underlying

contacts, allowing us to measure the current voltage (I-V) characteristics without having

to remove the SiO2 layers. Prior to SiO2 deposition, the rectifiers displayed reverse

breakdown voltage (VB) of 770 V, on-state resistance (RON) of 4.73 mΩ.cm2 and forward

turn-on voltage (VF) of 2.06 V at 100 A.cm-2.

3.2.3 Results and Discussion

Figure 3-4 shows the effect on VB of plasma power (top), pressure (center) and

N2O percentage (bottom) during the SiO2 deposition. There is no significant change in VB

at low powers, while at higher powers (>250 W), it increases. Since VB is inversely

dependent on the doping in the depletion region (ND), according to the relation:

NEV

D

CB e2

2∈=

where ∈ is the permittivity of SiC and e the electronic charge, this suggests a decrease in

doping in the unprotected region around the rectifying contact (and possibly under, since

atomic hydrogen ion diffuse in an isotropic fashion). This effect was largest at the lowest

46

process pressure, as seen in the center part of Figure 3-4. The bottom part of the figure

shows that VB actually decreased under SiH4-rich deposition conditions. Therefore, we

suggest that the main effect of the hydrogen flux is to decrease VB through creation of

surface states, whereas the effects of plasma power and pressure are mainly due to

creation of deep traps by energetic ion bombardment. In this later case, the effective

doping around the contact is decreased and this leads to an increase in breakdown

voltage.

The forward turn-on voltage was less sensitive to changes in the SiO2 deposition

parameters than was VB. This is expected, since VF is controlled by the barrier height of

Ni contact (1.3 eV) and by series resistance contributions, especially from contact

resistance. Since the area under the Schottky contact is protected by the overlying metal

and the rear ohmic contact is not exposed to the plasma, we would expect VF to be less

sensitive to the process conditions. Figure 3-5 shows the effect on VF of both plasma

power (top) and process pressure (bottom), with the changes in each case being less than

~ 10%.

The on-state resistance is related to the critical field for breakdown EC and the

reverse breakdown voltage through the relation [96]:

EVR

C

BON 3

24

∈=

µ

where µ is the electron mobility in the 4H-SiC epi-layer. Figure 3-6 shows the effect of

plasma power (top), N2O percentage (center) and process pressure (bottom) on RON. The

trends mirror those seen for VB under the same conditions, with the increases being

greatest at the highest powers, highest SiH4 content in the plasma and the lowest process

pressure.

47

3.3 Effect on 4H-SiC Schottky Rectifier of Ar Discharges Generated in a Planar Inductively Coupled Plasma Source

3.3.1 Introduction

SiC-based rectifiers are generating tremendous current interest for a broad range

of applications, including broad band satellite transmission systems, advanced radar, high

temperature sensors and traction motor control [119-127]. Most attention has been

focused on the 4H-SiC polytype because of its larger bandgap (3.25 eV) and higher

mobility relative to the other polytypes [70]. Within the two basic classes of rectifiers,

Schottky devices have the lowest on-state voltages and highest switching speeds; while p-

i-n diodes have the higher reverse breakdown voltage and lower reverse leakage current

[87]. Compared to Si rectifiers, SiC devices have on-state resistances approximately a

hundred times lower or equivalently much larger breakdown voltage at the same on-state

resistance [96]. While very high forward currents (up to 130 A) and breakdown voltages

(4.9 kV) have been achieved for 4H-SiC Schottky rectifiers [87], a lot of recent attention

has been focused on fabrication and materials technology for diodes in the 300-1000 V

range [105]. Plasma processing is required both for dry etching of mesas and deposition

of dielectrics for surface passivation and metal overlap edge termination. However little

has been reported on the effects of plasma exposure on the electrical performance of 4H-

SiC rectifiers.

In this study, we describe the effect of Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) Ar

discharges generated in a novel plasma source configuration, on the electrical properties

48

0 100 200 300 400-30

-20

-10

0

10

20

30

40

50SiC Schottky diodes

% c

hang

e in

Vb

Power (W)

600 700 800 900-20

0

20

40SiC Schottky diodes

% c

hang

e in

Vb

Pressure (mTorr)

0 10 20 30 40 50-100

-80

-60

-40

-20

0SiC Schottky diodes

% c

hang

e in

Vb

% N2O

Figure 3-4 Percentage change in VB as a function of plasma power (top), process pressure

(center) and N2O content (bottom) during SiO2 deposition.

49

0 100 200 300 4002

4

6

8

10

12 SiC Schottky diodes

% in

crea

se in

Vf

Power (W)

600 700 800 9002

4

6

8

10 SiC Schottky diodes

% in

crea

se in

Vf

Pressure (mTorr)

Figure 3-5 Percentage change in VF as a function of plasma power (top) and process pressure (bottom) during SiO2 deposition.

50

0 100 200 300 4000

5

10

15

20

25 SiC Schottky diodes

% in

crea

se in

Ron

Power (W)

0 10 20 30 40 500

2

4

6

8

10 SiC Schottky diodes

% in

crea

se in

Ron

% N2O

600 700 800 9000

5

10

15

20

25 SiC Schottky diodes

% in

crea

se in

Ron

Pressure (mTorr)

Figure 3-6 Percentage change in RON as a function of plasma power (top), N2O content

(center) and process pressure (bottom) during SiO2 deposition.

51

of Ni/4H-SiC Schottky rectifiers. Both ion flux and ion energy are found to play a role in

the extent of the observed changes in reverse breakdown voltage (VB), on-state resistance

(RON), ideality factor (n) and forward turn-on voltage (VF).

3.3.2 Experimental Methods

The Schottky rectifiers with a contact diameter of 154 µm were fabricated in the

same way as described in section 2.1.2. The as-fabricated rectifiers show RON of 4.4 mΩ-

cm2, VF = 1.96 V and VB = -330 V.

The devices were exposed to pure Ar discharges in a planar coil geometry ICP

reactor, shown schematically in Figure 3-7. A key feature of this system is the ability to

operate at very low source power (20 W) as well as chuck power (5 W), which allows

one to design etch or deposition processes that end with very low ion energy and flux

conditions to minimize damage. The ICP source power (2 MHz) was varied from 100-

700 W, the rf chuck power (13.56 MHz) from 25-200 W and the process pressure from

10-40 mTorr. All exposures were 30 sec in duration and removed < 150 Å of the surface

by sputtering. These plasma exposure simulate the ion bombardment received by the SiC

surface during processes such as dry etching of plasma enhanced chemical vapor

deposition and represent a worst-case scenario because there is no chemical etch

component that would remove some of the damaged surface region on a deposition of

dielectric to protect the surface from further ion bombardment.

3.3.3 Results and Discussion

Figure 3-8 shows the percentage changes in VB (top) and RON (bottom) as a

function of ICP source power (100 W) and process pressure (10 mTorr). The reverse

breakdown voltage decreases with increasing ion flux. Since the dc self-bias on the

52

sample electrode also decreases with increasing source power, this indicates that

increasing ion flux is a factor in degrading the breakdown voltage. Note however that the

changes are ≤ 25% even at the highest source power employed. For SiC there is an

empirical relationship between VB and the doping in the epilayer, ND, which is given by

[96]:

NV DB

75.0151075.1 −×=

One of the expected effects of Ar plasma exposure on the exposed SiC around the

contact periphery is a decrease in ND through creation of deep trap states. However this

would lead to an increase in VB, which is the opposite of what is observed

experimentally. Therefore, we suggest that the main effect of the plasma exposure under

our conditions is an increase in surface defects that initiate breakdown at much lower

values than expected from the bulk doping of the SiC epilayer.

The on-state resistance can be written as [106]:

EVR

C

BON 3

24

∈=

µ

where µ is the electron mobility, ∈ the permittivity of 4H-SiC and EC the critical field for

breakdown. Since VB decreases with increasing source power, we would also expect a

decrease in RON unless EC is also decreasing. Figure 3-8 (bottom) shows large increases

in RON as the source power is increased, which is consistent with the creation of surface

states that promote early breakdown of the damaged rectifier.

Figure 3-9 shows the percentage changes in VF (top, measured at 100 A.cm-2) and

ideality factor (bottom) as a function of source power at fixed rf power (100 W) and

pressure (100 mTorr). Note that the changes in both parameters are ≤ 20% provided the

53

source power is left below 300 W, corresponding to a dc self-bias ≤ -185 V. At higher

source powers both VF and n are severely degraded even though the self-bias under these

conditions is low (-41 V at 700 W source power). The average energy of the incident Ar+

ions is roughly given by the sum of the dc self-bias and the plasma potential

(approximately –25V in this system). Therefore even though the ion energy is low at high

source powers, the ion flux is sufficient to create significant degradation in the rectifier

characteristics. The forward voltage drop for a Schottky rectifiers is related to the barrier

height (φB) and RON through the relation [56]:

JRJV FONBF

Fn

TAenkT

++= φ)ln( 2**

where k is Boltzmann’s constant, T the absolute temperature, e the electronic charge, JF

the forward current density and A** is Richardson’s constant for 4H-SiC. Therefore VF

can be degraded by increases in ideality factor and on-state resistance along with a

reduction in forward current due to introduction of trap states.

The changes in rectifier performance were also dependent on the applied rf chuck

power, or equivalently on ion energy. The changes in VB, VF, RON and n were ≤ 20% for

VB and VF, ≤ 30% for RON and ≤ 40% for n over the range of these parameters that we

investigated.

Figure 3-10 shows the percentage changes in VB (top) and RON (bottom) as a

function of process pressure at fixed source power (300 W) and rf power (100 W). Note

that the decreases in both parameters are largest at the lowest pressure. This is consistent

with the fact that at low pressures the incident ions have a lower probability of collisions

with gas molecules or they traverse the sheath region and therefore they impact with their

full energy. A major advantage of the plasma ICP source is its ability to operate at higher

54

pressures (≥ 40 mTorr) relative to the more normal 10mTorr range of conventional

cylindrical coil sources. The ideality factor of the rectifiers was still more degraded at

higher pressures, while VF showed very small changes with pressure (Figure 3-11).

3.3.4 Summary and Conclusions

In conclusion 4H-SiC Schottky rectifiers show only modest changes in the

electrical characteristics after high-energy proton irradiation at fluences corresponding to

more than 10 years in low-earth orbit. These devices appear promising for both aerospace

and terrestrial applications where irradiation hardness is a prerequisite. The main

degradation mechanism appears to be creation of recombination centers and traps that

cause an increase in reverse leakage current, ideality factor and on-state resistance.

In another study, PECVD SiO2 layers were deposited on Ni/4H-SiC Schottky

rectifiers as a function of various plasma parameters. Both reverse breakdown voltage

and on-state resistance increase with increasing plasma power and SiH4 content through

creation of deep trap states and degradation of the SiC surface by reaction with atomic

hydrogen, respectively. The changes in forward turn-on voltage are less dramatic in each

case. Plasma conditions that utilize low-to-moderate powers, high process pressure and

low SiH4 percentages produce minimal changes in the rectifier performance.

4H-SiC power rectifiers were also exposed to Ar discharges in a plasma coil ICP

reactor as a function of various plasma parameters. The reverse breakdown voltage

decreases with increasing ion flux, which is controlled by the source power, whereas VF,

RON and n all increase under the same conditions. These results are consistent with

creation of surface states that promote reverse breakdown at lower applied voltages. The

same trends were observed with increasing of chuck power, which controls the incident

ion energy. The increases in VB and RON are minimized at high operating process

55

pressure, as expected since these conditions reduce the effectiveness of the ion

bombardment experienced during the plasma exposure. Damage during actual etch or

deposition process would be lower than produced during the Ar plasma exposure, but

clearly process conditions that utilize low ion energies and fluxes are desirable at the end

of an etch cycle or the beginning of a deposition cycle in order to minimize ion-induced

damage.

56

ICP (Inductively Coupled Plasma) Etching System

Reactor

13.56 MHZ

Frame Structure

Faraday Shield

Load Lock

He Cooling System

Plasma

Gas Inlet

Quartz

Sample

Powered Electrode

Figure 3-7 Planar coil ICP reactor.

57

100 200 300 400 500 600 700-25

-20

-15

-10

-5SiC Schottky RIE Power: 100 WPressure: 10 mTorr

ICP Power (W)

% c

hang

e in

VB

0

100

200

300

400

500

dc se

lf-bi

as (-

V)

100 200 300 400 500 600 700-200

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

RIE Power: 100 WPressure: 10 mTorr

SiC Schottky

% c

hang

e in

Ron

ICP Power (W)

Figure 3-8 Percentage change in VB (top) and RON (bottom) of 4H-SiC rectifiers as a

function of ICP source power.

58

100 200 300 400 500 600 700

0

50

100

150

200

250

RIE Power: 100 WPressure: 10 mTorr

SiC Schottky

% c

hang

e in

VF

ICP Power (W)

100 200 300 400 500 600 700

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

RIE Power: 100 WPressure: 10 mTorr

SiC Schottky

% c

hang

e in

idea

lity

fact

or

ICP Power (W)

Figure 3-9 Percentage change in VF (top) and n (bottom) of 4H-SiC rectifiers as a

function of ICP source power.

59

10 15 20 25 30 35 40-20

-15

-10

-5

0

5

Pressure (mTorr)

% c

hang

e in

VB

0

50

100

150

200

250

SiC SchottkyRIE Power: 100 WICP Power: 300 W

dc se

lf-bi

as (-

V)

10 15 20 25 30 35 4014

16

18

20

22

24

26

28

30

32

RIE Power: 100 WICP Pwer: 300 W

SiC Schottky

% c

hang

e in

Ron

Pressure (mTorr)

Figure 3-10 Percentage change in VB (top) and RON (bottom) of 4H-SiC rectifiers as a

function of process pressure.

60

10 15 20 25 30 35 4017

18

19

20

21

22RIE Power: 100 WICP Pwer: 300 W

SiC Schottky

% c

hang

e in

VF

Pressure (mTorr)

10 15 20 25 30 35 40

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

RIE Power: 100 WICP Pwer: 300 W

SiC Schottky

% c

hang

e in

idea

lity

fact

or

Pressure (mTorr)

Figure 3-11 Percentage change in VF (top) and n (bottom) of 4H-SiC rectifiers as a

function of process pressure.

CHAPTER 4 JUNCTION TERMINATION EXTENSION GEOMETRY OF SIC RECTIFIERS

It is possible to make etching of SiC (0001) facet only by plasma methods because

of its high chemical stability [128]. After such etching the surface of the semiconductor is

strongly damaged and is not electrically neutral. It is a reason for arising breakdown at

considerable lower voltages than the values implied by the impurity concentration in the

base. In most of the cases the breakdown characterized by surface leakage current (in the

order of 10-6–10-8 A) and was irreversible. For decreasing probability of surface like

breakdown it is necessary to make surface electrical field strength less than the strength

in bulk.

This can be achieved by profiling of mesa structure during etching [129] or by

diffusion o acceptor impurities into the surface region of the n-base [130]. Also electrical

activity of the surface can be decreased by special treatment like oxidation.

Another problem encountered for high reverse voltage is when the breakdown

occurs through the air along the surface of the mesa-structure. It has been shown that the

breakdown voltage increases when the measurements are done by placing the samples in

a dielectric liquid with a high value of electric breakdown field strength like fluorientTM

FC-77 [131]. For high temperature and high power devices if is necessary to cover mesa-

structure by the thermostable dielectric with critical electrical field strength more than

that of air.

61

62

4.1 Influence of Edge Termination Geometry on Performance of 4H-SiC P-i-N Rectifiers

4.1.1 Introduction

4H-SiC has a larger bandgap (3.26 eV) compared to 6H-SiC (2.9 eV) and is

preferred for device applications because of its higher and more isotropic electron

mobility [70]. There is particular interest in the development of 4H-SiC power rectifiers

for high power electronics applications. The on-state resistance of SiC rectifiers can be

less than 1% that of Si rectifiers with the same breakdown voltage [106-108]. There are

two basic classes of rectifiers, namely Schottky and p-n junction. The former have lower

on-state voltages and higher switching speeds, while the latter have higher breakdown

voltage and lower reverse leakage current. Advanced designs such as junction barrier

Schottky (JBS) [109], dual metal trench [90] and merged p-i-n Schottky rectifiers (MPS)

[110] attempt to achieve the advantages of both types of rectifiers [84].

An empirically derived relationship of 4H-SiC shows that the critical electric field

for breakdown, EC, is related to the doping level in the drift layer, ND, through [112]:

)10

log(25.01

105.2

16

6

DC NE

−

×=

or in terms of breakdown voltage, VB [104]:

NV DB

75.0151075.1 ×=

Excellent high current (230 A) and high voltage (5.5 kV) performance have been

reported for 4H-SiC p-i-n rectifiers. The performance of manufacturable devices in the

300-1000V range is of particular interest, especially the development of robust designs

and fabrication sequences. In this paper we report on the influence of edge termination

design on the performance of 4H-SiC p-i-n rectifiers with a simple epi layer structure.

63

4.1.2 Experimental Methods

Epi layers of 12 µm of n-type (n~2x1015 cm-3) and 1 µm of p-type (p~1017 cm-3)

4H-SiC were grown on n+ 4H-SiC substrates. A schematic of the completed rectifiers is

shown in Figure 4-1. A full-area back metallization of Ni annealed at 970 0C for 3 min

provided ohmic contact to the substrate. Mesas were formed by dry etching and thermal

SiO2 was used as the part of the dielectric overlap edge termination. The e-beam

evaporated Ni Schottky rectifiers had areas between 0.005-0.04 mm2. Passivation layers

of SiO2 (3000 Å thick) were deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition.

The adjustable parameters were the extent of metal overlap onto the mesa defining the

active device area and the length of this mesa. The mesa edge termination has been

demonstrated to provide excellent results on SiC p-n junctions provided the mesa surface

is properly passivated [90,94].

4.1.3 Results and Discussion

Figure 4-2 shows the forward I-V characteristics from one of the p-i-n rectifiers.

The I-V curve can be fitted to the standard relationship for p-n diodes, namely [107]:

)exp()exp(21 kTneVJ

kTneVJ

AIJ DORO +==

where A is the diode area, JRO and JDO are the saturation current densities for

recombination and diffusion current mechanisms, respectively, e is the electronic charge,

k is Boltzmann’s constant, T the absolute temperature, V the applied bias and n1 and n2

are the ideality factors for recombination and diffusion currents, respectively. A fit to the

data yields n1=1.97 and n2=1.10. Therefore, at lower current densities the transport is

dominated by recombination, whereas at higher forward voltages, the current is

64

dominated by the diffusion contribution. The forward turn-on voltage, VF, can be

represented as [84]:

VV Mi

F nnn

ekT

+= +− )ln( 2

where n- and n+ are the electron concentrations at the two end regions (p+/n and n+/n), ni

the intrinsic electron concentration and VM the voltage drop across the drift region. The

measured VF is ~4V, or roughly 0.74 V higher than the theoretical minimum. The best

on-state resistance was 15 mΩcm2, with an on/off current ratio of 1.5x105 at 3/-450 V.

Figure 4-3 shows reverse I-V characteristics as a function of metal overlap distance

for fixed mesa extension distance of 60 µm. The reverse breakdown voltage shows a

trend of decreasing as the metal overlap distance increases. The mechanism is not clear at

the moment, but could be due to several factors, including breakdown in the thermal

oxide or extension of the depletion region to include defects under the mesa. The figure-

of-merit VB2/RON was a maximum of 13.5 MWcm-2 for these rectifiers.

Figure 4-4 shows the variation of VB with metal overlap distance for rectifiers with

different active areas. There is no significant effect of area over the range we employed,

but we would expect to observe a decrease in VB in very large rectifiers because of the

increased probability of having a defect in the active region [127].

Figure 4-5 shows reverse I-V characteristics from rectifiers with fixed area and

extent of metal overlap, as a function of mesa extension length. The VB values extracted

from this data are shown in Figure 4-6. Within experimental error and the uniformity of

VB on a given wafer (~ ±10%), there is no significant change in breakdown voltage as a

function of mesa extension length.

65

4.2 Effect of Contact Geometry on 4H-SiC Schottky Rectifiers with Junction Termination Extension

4.2.1 Introduction

There is great current interest in SiC power Schottky rectifiers with reverse

breakdown voltages in the 500-1000V range for applications in traction motor control,

sensors and next generation communications and radar systems [125-132]. These devices

have significant advantages over Si diodes for these purposes, including lower switching

losses, higher operating temperatures and faster switching speeds [93, 96]. In addition the

high thermal conductivity of SiC (approximately three times that of Si) makes it ideal for

very high current applications. There is still a need to optimize the edge termination and

contact geometry for SiC rectifiers in order to find the most robust design for

manufacturing.

In this study we report on the effect of Schottky metal overlap and contact shape on

the reverse breakdown voltage of 4H-SiC rectifiers employing junction termination

extension (JTE). The JTE is used to reduce the electric field at the edges of the rectifiers.

It increases the breakdown voltage of the diode by reducing the electric field density

within the SiC near the edges of the rectifier. The p-doping of the JTE region counteracts

the bending of the depletion region around the edges of the anode. This effect spreads out

the electric field at the corners and edges of the depletion region.

4.2.2 Experimental Methods

The starting samples consisted of 1 µm p-type 4H-SiC (p~1017 cm-3) on 12 µm of

n-type 4H-SiC (n~2x1015 cm-3) on a n+ 4H-SiC substrate. A full area back contact of e-

beam deposited Ni annealed at 970 0C was used for contact to the substrate. Thermally

66

Figure 4-1 P-i-N rectifier.

67

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

0.0

2.0x10-3

4.0x10-3

6.0x10-3

8.0x10-3

1.0x10-2

1.2x10-2

1.4x10-2

SiC P-i-N diode

Cur

rent

(A)

Bias Voltage (V)

Figure 4-2 Forward I-V characteristics of p-i-n rectifier.

68

-700 -600 -500 -400 -300 -200 -100 010-11

10-10

10-9

10-8

10-7

10-6

10-5

10-4 metal overlap 0 µm metal overlap 2 µm metal overlap 4 µm metal overlap 6 µm

SiC P-i-N diodeSiO2: 3000 Å p-SiC:1 µmDiode area: 0.01 mm2

mesa length:60 µm

Cur

rent

(A)

Bias Voltage (V)

Figure 4-3 Reverse I-V characteristics from p-i-n rectifiers as a function of metal overlap distance onto mesa.

69

0 1 2 3 4 5 60

200

400

600

area: 0.04 mm2

area: 0.01 mm2

area: 0.005 mm2

Bre

akdo

wn

Vol

tage

(V)

Metal Overlap (µm)

Figure 4-4 Variation of VB with metal overlap distance for p-i-n rectifiers.

70

-500 -450 -400 -350 -300 -250 -200 -150 -100 -50 010-11

10-10

10-9

10-8

10-7

10-6

10-5

10-4

mesa length: 60 µm mesa length: 40 µm mesa length: 20 µm mesa length: 0 µm

SiC P-i-N diodeSiO2: 3000 Å p-SiC:1 µmDiode Area: 0.04 mm2

metal overlap: 4 µm

Cur

rent

(A)

Bias Voltage (V)

Figure 4-5 Reverse I-V characteristics from p-i-n rectifiers as a function of mesa length.

71

0 10 20 30 40 50 60100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

SiC P-i-N diodeSiO2: 3000 Å p-SiC: 1 µmArea: 0.04 mm2 Metal Overlap: 4 µm

Bre

akdo

wn

Vol

tage

(V)

Mesa Length (µm)

Figure 4-6 Variation of VB with mesa length for p-i-n rectifiers with fixed metal overlap

distance of 4 µm.

72

grown SiO2 was on part of the dielectric overlap edge termination. Schottky contact holes

were etched into the SiO2 and through the p-SiC to expose the underlying n-SiC using

dry etching. Schottky contacts of e-beam evaporated Ni (area 0.04 – 0.64 mm2) were

patterned by lift-off. Three different contact shapes were employed, namely oval, circular

and square. Finally, SiO2 layer deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

(PECVD) was used for passivation. A schematic of the completed device structure is

shown in Figure 4-7.

4.2.3 Results and Discussion

The forward turn-on voltage VF, defined as the forward bias at which the current

density is 100 A-cm2, was < 2V (Figure 4-8). The on-state resistance, RON, was

4.2mΩcm2, which is close to the theoretical minimum for this structure of 4H-SiC. The

VF is ~25% higher than the theoretical minimum for Ni Schottky diodes on 4H-SiC and

may reflect the presence of some residual dry etch damage or surface contamination.

Figure 4-9 shows the reverse current-voltage (I-V) characteristics from rectifiers

with 0.04 mm2 area, junction termination extension of 40 µm and Ni metal overlap of 4

µm in extent, as a function of contact shape. Note that the oval diodes have the highest

leakage at low bias (<250 V) and the lowest leakage at higher voltages. The reverse

breakdown increases in the sequence square<circular<oval, where we define the

breakdown as the voltage at which the current reaches 1 µm. It is not immediately clear

why the oval shape rectifiers have higher breakdown and more work is needed to

establish any relationship to defect density in the SiC samples or the role of surface states

around the contact periphery. The breakdown voltage of all rectifiers is still

73

approximately a factor of two lower than expected from the depletion layer doping and

thickness employed.

Figure 4-10 shows reverse I-V characteristics from rectifiers of different contact

area and fixed JTE (40 µm) and extent of metal overlap (2 µm). The reverse breakdown

voltage decreases with increasing contact area. This is most likely due to the increased

probability of having crystal defects in the active region of the rectifier as the area is

increased. The shape of the I-V curves is similar to those reported earlier for Ni/4H-SiC

rectifiers [90], where it was suggested that both thermionic field emission and field

emission mechanisms are present.

There was little effect of metal overlap extent on the reverse I-V characteristics, as

shown in Figure 4-11 for oval-shaped rectifiers with small area (0.04 mm2) and a JTE of

20 µm. This is expected, since the field distribution in the depletion region is controlled

by the p-n junctions formed by the JTE regions on the drift region and not by the metal

overlying the p-regions. This gives considerable latitude in the patterning step for the

metal deposition. Similar results are shown in Figure 4-12 for rectifiers with a JTE length

of 40 µm.

A summary of VB data as a function of metal overlap distance for different JTE

length is shown in Figure 4-13. While the number of samples is too small to draw

definitive conclusions, VB is maximized at shorter JTE lengths. We believe that

breakdown may actually be initiated in the p-layer under some conditions because of its

low doping level and therefore longer JTE regions have a higher probability of having

defects that promote breakdown. The diodes show an excellent on/off current ratio (1.5/-

500V) of ≥ 4x105 at 25 0C.

74

4.3 Role of Device Area, Mesa Length and Metal Overlap Distance on Breakdown Voltage of 4H-SiC P-i-N Rectifiers

4.3.1 Introduction

SiC p-i-n rectifiers have several advantages over their simpler Schottky

counterparts, most importantly, a higher reverse breakdown voltage (VB) and lower

reverse leakage current [104-110]. SiC p-i-n rectifiers are expected to offer significant

performance advantages over Si rectifiers for high voltage applications, rf base station

infrastructure, advanced avionics, combustion control electronics in automobiles and

solid-state power conditioning [133-135]. While very high VB and forward conduction

currents have been reported (8.6 kV [87]), the need is to design robust device structures

and processes for the 300-1200 V range. In particular, to realize a manufacturable SiC

rectifier process, it is necessary to understand the effect of various edge termination

geometries on the breakdown voltage characteristics so that VB most closely approaches

the expected parallel-plate value for the epi layer doping and thicknesses employed.

Moreover, it is necessary to carry out these investigations on 4H-SiC, which has larger

bandgap and higher and more isotropic mobility than the 6H-polytype [70].

In this study we report the results of an investigation into the role of device area,

mesa length and metal overlap distance on the breakdown voltage of 4H-SiC p-i-n

rectifiers fabricated on thick (~50 µm) epi-layers under non-punch through drift region

conditions.

4.3.2 Experimental Methods

The starting substrates were n+ (1019 cm-3) 4H-SiC. Approximately 50 µm of n-type

(~2 x 1015 cm-3) and 1 µm of p-type (p ~ 1017 cm-3) 4H-SiC was grown on these

substrates by vapor phase epitaxy, followed by ~500 Å of thermal SiO2. A full area-back

75

Figure 4-7 Schottky rectifier.

76

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0

0

20

40

60

80 SiC Schottky Diode(p-type edge termination)SiO2: 3000 ÅDiode Area: 0.64 mm2

Cur

rent

Den

sity

(A/c

m2 )

Bias Voltage (V)

Figure 4-8 Forward I-V characteristics of 0.64 mm2 rectifier.

77

-800 -700 -600 -500 -400 -300 -200 -100 0

10-11

10-10

10-9

10-8

10-7

10-6

10-5

10-4

oval diode circular diode square diode

SiC Schottky Diodes area:0.04 mm2

JTE:40 µmmetal overlap: 4 µm

Cur

rent

(A)

Bias Voltage (V)

Figure 4-9 Reverse I-V characteristics of 0.04 mm2 rectifiers with different contact shape.

78

-700 -600 -500 -400 -300 -200 -100 010-11

10-10

10-9

10-8

10-7

10-6

10-5

area: 0.04 mm2

area: 0.16 mm2

area: 0.64 mm2

SiC Schottky Diodes ovalJTE:40 µmmetal overlap: 2 µm

Cur

rent

(A)

Bias Voltage (V)

Figure 4-10 Reverse I-V characteristics of rectifiers with oval shaped contacts of different

area.

79

-800 -700 -600 -500 -400 -300 -200 -100 0

10-11

10-10

10-9

10-8

10-7

10-6

10-5

metal overlap: 6 µm metal overlap: 4 µm metal overlap: 2 µm

SiC Schottky Diodes (Oval)area:0.04 mm2

JTE:20 µm

Cur

rent

(A)

Bias Voltage (V)

Figure 4-11 Reverse I-V characteristics of rectifiers with oval shaped contacts (0.04 mm2), as a function of extent of metal overlap.

80

-900 -800 -700 -600 -500 -400 -300 -200 -100 0

10-11

10-10

10-9

10-8

10-7

10-6

10-5

10-4

SiC Schottky Diodes (Oval)area:0.04 mm2

JTE:40 µm

metal overlap: 2 µm metal overlap: 4 µm metal overlap: 6 µm

Cur

rent

(A)

Bias Voltage (V)

Figure 4-12 Reverse I-V characteristics of rectifiers with oval-shaped contacts (0.04 mm2), as a function of extent of metal overlap.

81

2 3 4 5 6

620

640

660

680

700

720

740

760

780

800

820

SiC Schottky Diodes area:0.04 mm2

JTE: 60 µm JTE: 40 µm JTE: 20 µm

Brea

kdow

n Vo

ltage

(V)

Metal Overlap (µm)

Figure 4-13 Variation of VB with extent of metal overlap for different JTE lengths.

82

contact of e-beam deposited Ni annealed at 970 0C for 3 min (contact resistivity of 1.2 x

10-6 Ωcm2), was used as the ohmic contact to the substrate. SiO2 layers ~ 3000 Å were

deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) and were employed

as part of dielectric overlap edge termination. Mesas were formed by dry etching. Holes

were also opened in the SiO2 stack by a combination of wet and dry etching and Schottky

contacts of e-beam evaporated (1000 Å thick) Ni patterned by lift-off. The contact area

was varied from 0.01-0.36 mm2, while the mesa length was varied from 0-60 µm and the

extent of metal overlap from 0-20 µm. All current-voltage (I-V) measurements were

carried out at 25 0C in air.

4.3.3 Results and Discussion

Figure 4-14 shows reverse I-V characteristics as a function of rectifier active area

for a fixed mesa length of 20 µm and a metal overlap distance of 4 µm. The reverse

breakdown voltage shows a trend of decreasing as the area increases. This is most likely a

result of the greater probability for having defects such as micropipes within the active

region of the rectifier as the area increases. Therefore, our devices still have breakdown

characteristics dominated by defect density rather than bulk breakdown mechanisms. For

the smallest rectifiers the best on-state resistance (RON) obtained was ~ 20 mΩcm2,

leading to a maximum power figure-of-merit VB2/RON of 84.5 MW.cm-2 This is roughly a

factor of 6 higher than we reported previously for 4H-SiC p-i-n rectifiers fabricated on

thinner (~ 12 µm) n-layers [136].

The dependence of VB on diode area is shown in Figure 4-15 for fixed mesa length

of 20 µm and metal overlap distance of 4 µm. The fall-off in VB with diode area is most

pronounced at small areas (0.01-0.04 mm2) and most likely defines the region where

83

there is a probability of having either zero or one “killer-defect” within the device.

Compared to the theoretical best performance for 4H-SiC rectifiers of this structure, there

is still considerable improvement possible in both VB and RON [84].

The reverse I-V characteristics as a function of metal overlap distance for fixed

mesa extension length of 0 µm and fixed diode area of 0.04 mm2 are shown in Figure 4-

16. VB goes through a maximum with increasing metal overlap distance, which is a

somewhat different trend than reported previously where it continuously decreased as the

extension distance increased [136]. However, a difference in that case was the mesa

length was fixed at 60 µm [136]. In the present case, the trend may result from onset of

breakdown in the oxide or extension of the depletion region to include defects that initiate

breakdown.

Figure 4-17 shows the variation of VB with metal overlap distance for the same

diodes whose I-V characteristics are shown in Figure 4-16. It is clear that this parameter

has a strong influence on the breakdown voltage, with VB ranging from a low of ~ -800 V

to a maximum of ~ -1200 V depending on metal overlap distance.

The reverse I-V characteristics from rectifiers with fixed area and extent of metal

overlap are shown in Figure 4-18 as a function of mesa extension length. Over a wide

range of voltage, the reverse current density was found to vary as the square root of the

reverse voltage, which is characteristic of space-charge generation currents. The relation

between generation current Jo and effective generation lifetime ( τG) is given by:

5.05.0 )()2( Vn

eNeJ

G

i

BG τ

ε=

84

where e is the electronic charge, ε the permittivity of 4H-SiC, NB the drift layer doping

concentration, ni the extrinsic carrier concentration at the measurement temperature and

V is the applied reverse bias [87]. Given a typical value of τG =100 ns [87], this relation

yields a calculated generation current much lower than the measured value, suggesting

that other mechanisms such as surface leakage is playing a role. The larger area devices

should lower reverse current densities, indicating that leakage around the contact

periphery is the main contributor, as reported previously [87]. Figure 4-19 shows the

variation of VB with mesa length, extracted from the data of Figure 4-18. There is no

clear dependence of reverse breakdown on this parameter under our conditions.

Finally, Figure 4-20 shows a typical forward I-V characteristic from a small area

rectifier. The I-V characteristic is well represented by the relation:

)()(21 kTneV

DkTn

eV

R eIeII +=

where IR and ID are the saturation currents for recombination and diffusion current

mechanisms, respectively, e is the electronic charge, k is the Boltzmann’s constant, V the

applied voltage, T the absolute temperature and n1 and n2 are the ideality factors for

recombination and diffusion currents, respectively. At low currents, n ~ 2, indicating that

the dominant transport mechanism is recombination. At higher currents, n ~ 1-1.5,

indicating that the dominant mechanism is diffusion. A typical on/off current ratio was ~

104 at +3.5V/-1000V.

4.3.4 Summary and Conclusions

In conclusion mesa edge termination of p-n 4H-SiC rectifiers passivated with SiO2

is simple alternative to use of implanted junction termination extension (JTE) methods.

The mesa extension length did not have a significant impact on the reverse breakdown

85

voltage of our devices, whereas increasing metal overlap distance tended to decrease VB.

On/off current ratios >105 were achieved, with VF values ~25% higher than the

theoretical minimum.

In another study, 4H-SiC rectifiers were fabricated with epi JTE regions and

dielectric overlap for edge termination. Contact areas from 0.04-0.64 mm2 were

examined, with the reverse breakdown voltage being inversely dependent on contact area.

Oval and circular diodes showed higher VB than square contacts of the same area. The

metal overlap extent did not have a strong influence on VB for JTE lengths up to 40 µm.

4H-SiC p-i-n rectifiers with VB ~ -1000 V were also demonstrated. The role of

device area, mesa length and metal overlap distance on VB were examined. The

breakdown voltage was inversely dependent on device area but was not a function of

mesa length. On/off current ratios of ~ 104 were achieved at 3.5/-1000V. VB was a

maximum at ~ 5 µm metal overlap distance.

86

-1000 -800 -600 -400 -20010-11

10-9

10-7

10-5

area: 0.36 mm2

area: 0.16 mm2

area: 0.04 mm2

area: 0.01 mm2

SiC p-i-n diodesMesa length: 20 µmMetal overlap: 4 µm

Cur

rent

(A)

Bias Voltage (V)

Figure 4-14 Reverse I-V characteristics of p-i-n rectifiers as a function of active area.

87

0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.40

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

SiC p-i-n diodesMesa length: 20 µmMetal Overlap: 4 µm

VB (-

V)

Diode Area (mm2)

Figure 4-15 VB as a function of diode area for p-i-n rectifiers with mesa length 20 µm and

metal overlap 4 µm.

88

-1400 -1200 -1000 -800 -600 -400 -20010-11

10-9

10-7

10-5

Metal overlap: 0µm Metal overlap: 2µm Metal overlap: 5µm Metal overlap: 10µm Metal overlap: 20µm

SiC p-i-n diodesDiode area: 0.04 mm2

Mesa length: 0 µm

Cur

rent

(A)

Bias Voltage (V)

Figure 4-16 Reverse I-V characteristics of p-i-n rectifiers as a function of metal overlap

distance.

89

0 5 10 15 200

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

SiC p-i-n diodesDiode area: 0.04 mm2 Mesa length: 0 µm

VB (-

V)

Metal Overlap (µm)

Figure 4-17 VB as a function of metal overlap length for p-i-n rectifiers with area 0.04

mm2 and zero mesa length.

90

-1200 -1000 -800 -600 -400 -20010-11

10-9

10-7

10-5

Mesa length: 0µm Mesa length: 20µm Mesa length: 40µm Mesa length: 60µm

SiC p-i-n diodeDiode area: 0.04 mm2

Metal overlap: 0 µm

Cur

rent

(A)

Bias Voltage (V)

Figure 4-18 Reverse I-V characteristics of p-i-n rectifiers as a function of mesa length.

91

0 10 20 30 40 50 600

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

SiC p-i-n diodesDiode area: 0.04 mm2

Metal overlap: 0 µm

VB (-

V)

Mesa Length (µm)

Figure 4-19 VB as a function of mesa length for p-i-n rectifiers with area 0.04 mm2 and

zero metal overlap length.

92

0 1 2 3 4 5

0.0

6.0x10-4

1.2x10-3

1.8x10-3

2.4x10-3

3.0x10-3

3.6x10-3

SiC p-i-n diodeDiode area: 0.04 mm2

Mesa length: 40 µmMetal overlap: 5 µm

Cur

rent

(A)

Bias Voltage (V)

Figure 4-20 Forward I-V characteristics.

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Saurav Nigam was born April 13th, 1978, in the small village of Rewa in central

India. His family moved to Bhopal in 1981 and he started his schooling at Campion

School, Bhopal, where he spent his fourteen years before graduating from high school in

1996.

In 1997, he began his college at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee,

one of the premier institutions in Asia. He graduated from IIT in May 2001.During the

undergraduate studies he conducted research in the area of biochemical engineering in

collaboration with Dr. Subhash Chand, professor, IIT-Delhi. He spent the summer of

1999 at the Department of Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering at IIT-Delhi

conducting experiments on “Lipase Catalyzed Esterification Reactions in Supercritical

CO2.”

It was his strong interest in the courses on reaction engineering, material science

and its application and electrical engineering that led to his ever-increasing interest in

microelectronics. He enrolled at the University of Florida in the Department of Chemical

Engineering in August 2001. In the spring of 2002 he joined Prof. Fan Ren’s research

group to work on state-of-art compound semiconductor devices. He has worked on

silicon carbide based devices focusing on Schottky and P-i-N rectifiers for high power

electronics. He has also published more than ten papers in reputable refereed journals and

symposium proceedings during his graduate and undergraduate research.

102