Characterization of Interface State Density of Ni/p-GaN Structures by Capacitance/Conductance-Voltage-Frequency Measurements

For the frequency range of I kHz-lOMHz, the interface state density of Ni contacts on p-GaN is studied using capacitance-voltage （C-V） and conductance-frequency-voltage （G-f-V） measurements at room temperature. To obtain the real capacitance and interface state density of the Ni/p-GaN structures, the effects of the series resistance （Rs） on high-frequency （SMHz） capacitance values measured at a reverse and a forward bias are investigated. The mean interface state densities obtained from the CHF-CLF capacitance and the conductance method are 2 ×1012 e V-1 cm-2 and 0.94 × 1012 eV-1 cm-2, respectively. Furthermore, the interface state density derived from the conductance method is higher than that reported from the Ni/n-GaN in the literature, which is ascribed to a poor crystal quality and to a large defect density of the Mg-doped p-GaN.

Characteristics and mechanisms of subthreshold voltage hysteresis in 4H-SiC MOSFETs

In order to investigate the characteristics and mechanisms of subthreshold voltage hysteresis(ΔV_(th,sub)) of 4 H-SiC metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors(MOSFETs),4 H-SiC planar and trench MOSFETs and corresponding P-type planar and trench metal-oxide-semiconductor(MOS) capacitors are fabricated and characterized.Compared with planar MOSFEF,the trench MOSFET shows hardly larger ΔV_(th,sub) in wide temperature range from 25 0 C to 300 0 C.When operating temperature range is from 25 ℃ to 300 ℃,the off-state negative V_(gs) of planar and trench MOSFETs should be safely above-4 V and-2 V,respectively,to alleviate the effect of ΔV_(th,sub) on the normal operation.With the help of P-type planar and trench MOS capacitors,it is confirmed that the obvious ΔV_(th,sub) of 4 H-SiC MOSFET originates from the high density of the hole interface traps between intrinsic Fermi energy level(E_(i)) and valence band(E_(v)).The maximumΔV_(th,sub) of trench MOSFET is about twelve times larger than that of planar MOSFET,owing to higher density of interface states(D_(it)) between E_(i) and E_(v).These research results will be very helpful for the application of 4 H-SiC MOSFET and the improvement of ΔV_(th,sub) of 4 H-SiC MOSFET,especially in 4 H-SiC trench MOSFET.

Characterization of the effects of nitrogen and hydrogen passivation on SiO2/4H-SiC interface by low temperature conductance measurements

We investigate the effects of NO annealing and forming gas （FG） annealing on the electrical properties of a SiO2/SiC interface by low-temperature conductance measurements. With nitrogen passivation, the density of interface states （DIT） is significantly reduced in the entire energy range, and the shift of flatband voltage, AVFB, is effectively suppressed to less than 0.4 V. However, very fast states are observed after NO annealing and the response frequencies are higher than 1 MHz at room temperature. After additional FG annealing, the DIT and AVFB are further reduced. The values of the DIT decrease to less than 1011 cm-2 eV- 1 for the energy range of Ec - ET 〉/0.4 eV. It is suggested that the fast states in shallow energy levels originated from the N atoms accumulating at the interface by NO annealing. Though FG annealing has a limited effect on these shallow traps, hydrogen can terminate the residual Si and C dangling bonds corresponding to traps at deep energy levels and improve the interface quality further. It is indicated that NO annealing in conjunction with FG annealing will be a better post-oxidation process method for high performance SiC MOSFETs.