Effect of annealing on the electrical performance of N-polarity GaN Schottky barrier diodes

A nitrogen-polarity(N-polarity)GaN-based high electron mobility transistor(HEMT)shows great potential for high-fre-quency solid-state power amplifier applications because its two-dimensional electron gas(2DEG)density and mobility are mini-mally affected by device scaling.However,the Schottky barrier height(SBH)of N-polarity GaN is low.This leads to a large gate leakage in N-polarity GaN-based HEMTs.In this work,we investigate the effect of annealing on the electrical characteristics of N-polarity GaN-based Schottky barrier diodes(SBDs)with Ni/Au electrodes.Our results show that the annealing time and tem-perature have a large influence on the electrical properties of N-polarity GaN SBDs.Compared to the N-polarity SBD without annealing,the SBH and rectification ratio at±5 V of the SBD are increased from 0.51 eV and 30 to 0.77 eV and 7700,respec-tively,and the ideal factor of the SBD is decreased from 1.66 to 1.54 after an optimized annealing process.Our analysis results suggest that the improvement of the electrical properties of SBDs after annealing is mainly due to the reduction of the inter-face state density between Schottky contact metals and N-polarity GaN and the increase of barrier height for the electron emis-sion from the trap state at low reverse bias.

High-Voltage Ti /6H-SiC Schottky Barrier Diodes

The fabrication and electrical characterization of Scho tt ky barrier diodes (SBD) on 6H-SiC,via thermal evaporation of Ni are reported.Th e Schottky barrier diodes are fabricated during the 6H-SiC epilayers grow n by using chemical vapor deposition on commercially available single-crystal 6 H-SiC wafers.The I-V characteristics of these diodes exhibit a sharp break down,with the breakdown voltage of 450V at room temperature.The diodes are demon strated to be of a low reverse leakage current of 5×10 -4 A·cm -2 at the bias voltage of -200V.The ideal factor and barrier height are 1 09 and 1 24-1 26eV,respectively.

Improvement of Ga_(2)O_(3)vertical Schottky barrier diode by constructing NiO/Ga_(2)O_(3)heterojunction

The high critical electric field strength of Ga_(2)O_(3)enables higher operating voltages and reduced switching losses in power electronic devices.Suitable Schottky metals and epitaxial films are essential for further enhancing device performance.In this work,the fabrication of vertical Ga_(2)O_(3)barrier diodes with three different barrier metals was carried out on an n--Ga_(2)O_(3)homogeneous epitaxial film deposited on an n+-β-Ga_(2)O_(3)substrate by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition,excluding the use of edge terminals.The ideal factor,barrier height,specific on-resistance,and breakdown voltage characteristics of all devices were investigated at room temperature.In addition,the vertical Ga_(2)O_(3)barrier diodes achieve a higher breakdown volt-age and exhibit a reverse leakage as low as 4.82×10^(-8)A/cm^(2)by constructing a NiO/Ga_(2)O_(3)heterojunction.Therefore,Ga_(2)O_(3)power detailed investigations into Schottky barrier metal and NiO/Ga_(2)O_(3)heterojunction of Ga_(2)O_(3)homogeneous epitaxial films are of great research potential in high-efficiency,high-power,and high-reliability applications.

Review of gallium oxide based field-effect transistors and Schottky barrier diodes

Gallium oxide(Ga_2O_3), a typical ultra wide bandgap semiconductor, with a bandgap of ~4.9 e V, critical breakdown field of 8 MV/cm, and Baliga's figure of merit of 3444, is promising to be used in high-power and high-voltage devices.Recently, a keen interest in employing Ga_2O_3 in power devices has been aroused. Many researches have verified that Ga_2O_3 is an ideal candidate for fabricating power devices. In this review, we summarized the recent progress of field-effect transistors(FETs) and Schottky barrier diodes(SBDs) based on Ga_2O_3, which may provide a guideline for Ga_2O_3 to be preferably used in power devices fabrication.

Temperature-dependent electrical properties of β-Ga_2O_3Schottky barrier diodes on highly doped single-crystal substrates

Beta-phase gallium oxide(β-Ga_2O_3) Schottky barrier diodes were fabricated on highly doped single-crystal substrates,where their temperature-dependent electrical properties were comprehensively investigated by forward and reverse current density – voltage and capacitance – voltage characterization. Both the Schottky barrier height and the ideality factor showed a temperature-dependence behavior, revealing the inhomogeneous nature of the Schottky barrier interface caused by the interfacial defects. With a voltage-dependent Schottky barrier incorporated into thermionic emission theory, the inhomogeneous barrier model can be further examined. Furthermore, the reverse leakage current was found to be dominated by the bulk leakage currents due to the good material and surface quality. Leakage current per distance was also obtained. These results can serve as important references for designing efficient β-Ga_2O_3 electronic and optoelectronic devices on highly doped substrates or epitaxial layers.

Temperature-dependent characteristics of 4H-SiC junction barrier Schottky diodes

The current-voltage characteristics of 4H-SiC junction barrier Schottky （JBS） diodes terminated by an offset field plate have been measured in the temperature range of 25-300℃. An experimental barrier height value of about 0.5 eV is obtained for the Ti/4H-SiC JBS diodes at room temperature. A decrease in the experimental barrier height and an increase in the ideality factor with decreasing temperature are shown. Reverse recovery testing also shows the temperature dependence of the peak recovery current density and the reverse recovery time. Finally, a discussion of reducing the reverse recovery time is presented.

Fabrication and characterization of vertical GaN Schottky barrier diodes with boron-implanted termination

The vertical GaN-on-GaN Schottky barrier diode with boron-implanted termination was fabricated and characterized.Compared with the Schottky barrier diode(SBD)without boron-implanted termination,this SBD effectively improved the breakdown voltage from 189 V to 585 V and significantly reduced the reverse leakage current by 10^5 times.In addition,a high Ion/Ioff ratio of ~10^8 was achieved by the boron-implanted technology.We used Technology Computer Aided Design(TCAD)to analyze reasons for the improved performance of the SBD with boron-implanted termination.The improved performance of diodes may be attributed to that B+could confine free carriers to suppress electron field crowding at the edge of the diode,which could improve the breakdown voltage and suppress the reverse leakage current.

Study and optimal simulation of 4H-SiC floating junction Schottky barrier diodes' structures and electric properties

This paper stuides the structures of 4H SiC floating junction Schottky barrier diodes. Some structure parameters of devices are optimized with commercial simulator based on forward and reverse electrical characteristics. Compared with conventional power Schottky barrier diodes, the devices are featured by highly doped drift region and embedded floating junction layers, which can ensure high breakdown voltage while keeping lower specific on-state resistance, and solve the contradiction between forward voltage drop and breakdown voltage. The simulation results show that with optimized structure parameter, the breakdown voltage can reach 4.36 kV and the specific on-resistance is 5.8 mΩ.cm2 when the Baliga figure of merit value of 13.1 GW/cm2 is achieved.

A simulation study of field plate termination in Ga2O3 Schottky barrier diodes

In this work, the field plate termination is studied for Ga2O3Schottky barrier diodes(SBDs) by simulation. The influence of field plate overlap, dielectric material and thickness on the termination electric field distribution are demonstrated.It is found that the optimal thickness increases with reverse bias increasing for all the three dielectrics of SiO2, Al2O3, and HfO2. As the thickness increases, the maximum electric field intensity decreases in SiO2and Al2O3, but increases in HfO2.Furthermore, it is found that SiO2and HfO2are suitable for the 600 V rate Ga2O3SBD, and Al2O3is suitable for both600 V and 1200 V rate Ga2O3SBD. In addition, the comparison of Ga2O3SBDs between the SiC and GaN counterpart reveals that for Ga2O3, the breakdown voltage bottleneck is the dielectric. While, for SiC and GaN, the bottleneck is mainly the semiconductor itself.

Effect of diode size and series resistance on barrier height and ideality factor in nearly ideal Au/n type-GaAs micro Schottky contact diodes

Small high-quality Au/n type-GaAs Schottky barrier diodes （SBDs） with low reverse leakage current are produced using lithography. Their effective barrier heights （BHs） and ideality factors from current-voltage （I-V） characteristics are measured by a Pico ampere meter and home-built I-V instrument. In spite of the identical preparation of the diodes there is a diode-to-diode variation in ideality factor and barrier height parameters. Measurement of topology of a surface of a thin metal film with atomic force microscope （AFM） shows that Au-n type-GaAS SD consists of a set of parallel-connected micro and nanocontacts diodes with sizes approximately in a range of 100-200 nm. Between barrier height and ideality factor there is an inversely proportional dependency. With the diameter of contact increasing from 5 μm up to 200 μm, the barrier height increases from 0.833 up to 0.933 eV and its ideality factor decreases from 1.11 down to 1.006. These dependencies show the reduction of the contribution of the peripheral current with the diameter of contact increasing. We find the effect of series resistance on barrier height and ideality factor.

High energy electron radiation effect on Ni and Ti/4H-SiC Schottky barrier diodes at room temperature

This paper reports that Ni and Ti/4H-SiC Schottky barrier diodes （SBDs） were fabricated and irradiated with 1 MeV electrons up to a dose of 3.43 × 10^14 e/cm2. After radiation, the Schottky barrier height φB of the Ni/4H-SiC SBD increased from 1.20 eV to 1.21 eV, but decreased from 0.95 eV to 0.94 eV for the Ti/4H-SiC SBD. The degradation of φB could be explained by interface states of changed Schottky contacts. The on-state resistance Rs of both diodes increased with the dose, which can be ascribed to the radiation defects. The reverse current of the Ni/4H-SiC SBD slightly increased, but for the Ti/4H-SiC SBD it basically remained the same. At room temperature, φB of the diodes recovered completely after one week, and the RS partly recovered.

High-performance 4H-SiC junction barrier Schottky diodes with double resistive termination extensions

4H-SiC junction barrier Schottky （JBS） diodes with a high-temperature annealed resistive termination extension （HARTE） are designed, fabricated and characterized in this work. The differential specific on-state resistance of the device is as low as 3.64 mΩ·cm^2 with a total active area of 2.46× 10 ^-3 cm^2. Ti is the Schottky contact metal with a Schottky barrier height of 1.08 V and a low onset voltage of 0.7 V. The ideality factor is calculated to be 1.06. Al implantation annealing is performed at 1250 ℃ in Ar, while good reverse characteristics are achieved. The maximum breakdown voltage is 1000 V with a leakage current of 9× 10^-5 A on chip level. These experimental results show good consistence with the simulation results and demonstrate that high-performance 4H-SiC JBS diodes can be obtained based on the double HARTE structure.

Device topological thermal management of β-Ga_(2)O_(3) Schottky barrier diodes

The ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor β gallium oxide(β-Ga_(2) O_(3)) gives promise to low conduction loss and high power for electronic devices. However, due to the natural poor thermal conductivity of β-Ga_(2) O_(3), their power devices suffer from serious self-heating effect. To overcome this problem, we emphasize on the effect of device structure on peak temperature in β-Ga_(2) O_(3) Schottky barrier diodes(SBDs) using TCAD simulation and experiment. The SBD topologies including crystal orientation of β-Ga_(2) O_(3), work function of Schottky metal, anode area, and thickness, were simulated in TCAD, showing that the thickness of β-Ga_(2) O_(3) plays a key role in reducing the peak temperature of diodes. Hence, we fabricated β-Ga_(2) O_(3) SBDs with three different thickness epitaxial layers and five different thickness substrates. The surface temperature of the diodes was measured using an infrared thermal imaging camera. The experimental results are consistent with the simulation results. Thus, our results provide a new thermal management strategy for high power β-Ga_(2) O_(3) diode.

Temperature-Dependent Characteristics of GaN Schottky Barrier Diodes with TiN and Ni Anodes

The effect of temperature on the characteristics of gallium nitride (GaN) Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) with TiN and Ni anodes is evaluated. With increasing the temperature from 25 to 175℃, reduction of the turn-on voltage and increase of the leakage current are observed for both GaN SBDs with TiN and Ni anodes. The performance after thermal treatment shows much better stability for SBDs with Ti N anode, while those with Ni anode change due to more interface states. It is found that the leakage currents of the GaN SBDs with TiN anode are in accord with the thermionic emission model whereas those of the GaN SBDs with Ni anode are much higher than the model. The Silvaco TCAD simulation results show that phonon-assisted tunneling caused by interface states may lead to the instability of electrical properties after thermal treatment, which dominates the leakage currents for GaN SBDs with Ni anode. Compared with GaN SBDs with Ni anode, GaN SBDs with TiN anode are beneficial to the application in microwave power rectification fields due to lower turn-on voltage and better thermal stability.

Characterization of ion-implanted 4H-SiC Schottky barrier diodes

Ion-implantation layers are fabricated by multiple nitrogen ion-implantations （3 times for sample A and 4 times for sample B） into a p-type 4H-SiC epitaxial layer. The implantation depth profiles are calculated by using the Monte Carlo simulator TRIM. The fabrication process and the I-V and C V characteristics of the lateral Ti/4H-SiC Schottky barrier diodes （SBDs） fabricated on these multiple box-like ion-implantation layers are presented in detail. Measurements of the reverse I V characteristics demonstrate a low reverse current, which is good enough for many SiC-based devices such as SiC metal-semiconductor field-effect transistors （MESFETs）, and SiC static induction transistors （SITs）. The parameters of the diodes are extracted from the forward I-V and C-V characteristics. The values of ideality factor n of SBDs for samples A and B are 3.0 and 3.5 respectively, and the values of series resistance Rs are 11.9 and 1.0 kf~ respectively. The values of barrier height φB of Ti/4H-SiC are 0.95 and 0.72 eV obtained by the I-V method and 1.14 and 0.93 eV obtained by the C-V method for samples A and B respectively. The activation rates for the implanted nitrogen ions of samples A and B are 2% and 4% respectively extracted from C V testing results.

Breakdown characteristics of AlGaN/GaN Schottky barrier diodes fabricated on a silicon substrate

In this work, the breakdown characteristics of AlGaN/GaN planar Schottky barrier diodes （SBDs） fabricated on the silicon substrate are investigated. The breakdown voltage （BV） of the SBDs first increases as a function of the anodeto-cathode distance and then tends to saturate at larger inter-electrode spacing. The saturation behavior of the BV is likely caused by the vertical breakdown through the intrinsic GaN buffer layer on silicon, which is supported by the post-breakdown primary leakage path analysis with the emission microscopy. Surface passivation and field plate termination are found effective to suppress the leakage current and enhance the BV of the SBDs. A high BV of 601 V is obtained with a low on-resistance of 3.15 mΩ·cm^2.

Determination of the series resistance under the Schottky contacts of AlGaN/AlN/GaN Schottky barrier diodes

Rectangular AlGaN/AlN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistors （HFETs） were fabricated, and the gate and the source of the HFETs consisted of AlGaN/AlN/CaN Schottky barrier diodes （SBDs）. Based on the measured forward current-voltage and the capacitance-voltage characteristics of the AlGaN/AlN/GaN SBDs, the series resistance under the Schottky contacts （Rs） was calculated using the method of power consumption, which has been proved to be valid. Finally, the method of power consumption for calculating RS was successfully used to study the two-dimensional electron gas electron mobility for a series of circular AlGaN/AlN/GaN SBDs. It is shown that the series resistance under the Schottky contacts cannot be neglected and is important for analysing and characterizing the AIGaN/AIN/GaN SBDs and the AlGaN/AlN/GaN HFETs.

Analytical model for capacitance-voltage characteristics of ion-implanted 4H silicon carbide Schottky barrier diodes

In order to undertake theory analysis in the application area of switching,frequency and power devices,an analytical model for capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics of ion-implanted 4H silicon carbide (SiC) Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) was investigated.This model was established by considering the effects of incomplete ionization of nitrogen in 4H-SiC,the Poole-Frenkel on the ionization energy,and the ion-implanted nitrogen donor profiles.The simulation process is discussed in detail for two multiple nitrogen ion-implanted 4H-SiC SBDs (three and four fold ion-implantations) designed and fabricated in the experiments using this model at different activation rates.An agreement between the modeled C-V curves and the measured results for two ion-implanted 4H-SiC SBDs fabricated is shown.This capacitance model has the potential to be used to simulate and design ion-implanted SiC devices concerned in the future.

Modeling,simulations,and optimizations of gallium oxide on gallium-nitride Schottky barrier diodes

With technology computer-aided design(TCAD)simulation software,we design a new structure of gallium oxide on gallium-nitride Schottky barrier diode(SBD).The parameters of gallium oxide are defined as new material parameters in the material library,and the SBD turn-on and breakdown behavior are simulated.The simulation results reveal that this new structure has a larger turn-on current than Ga2O3 SBD and a larger breakdown voltage than Ga N SBD.Also,to solve the lattice mismatch problem in the real epitaxy,we add a Zn O layer as a transition layer.The simulations show that the device still has good properties after adding this layer.

Design and simulation of AlN-based vertical Schottky barrier diodes

The key parameters of vertical AlN Schottky barrier diodes(SBDs) with variable drift layer thickness(DLT) and drift layer concentration(DLC) are investigated. The specific on-resistance(R_(on,sp)) decreased to 0.5 mΩ · cm^(2) and the breakdown voltage(V_(BR)) decreased from 3.4 kV to 1.1 kV by changing the DLC from 10^(15) cm^(-3) to 3×10^(16) cm^(-3). The VBRincreases from 1.5 kV to 3.4 kV and the Ron,sp also increases to 12.64 mΩ · cm^(2) by increasing DLT from 4-μm to 11-μm. The VBRenhancement results from the increase of depletion region extension. The Baliga's figure of merit(BFOM) of3.8 GW/cm^(2) was obtained in the structure of 11-μm DLT and 10^(16) cm^(-3) DLC without FP. When DLT or DLC is variable,the consideration of the value of BFOM is essential. In this paper, we also present the vertical AlN SBD with a field plate(FP), which decreases the crowding of electric field in electrode edge. All the key parameters were optimized by simulating based on Silvaco-ATLAS.