Improving the Barrier Height Uniformity of 4H—SiC Schottky Barrier Diodes by Nitric Oxide Post-Oxidation Annealing

Author

Dohyun Lee ; Changhyun Kim ; Hunhee Lee ; Suhyeong Lee ; Hongjeon Kang ; Hyunwoo Kim ; Hui Kyung Park ; Jaeyeong Heo ; Hyeong Joon Kim

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mater. Sci. & Eng., Seoul Nat. Univ., Seoul, South Korea

Volume

35

Issue

8

fYear

2014

fDate

Aug. 2014

Firstpage

868

Lastpage

870

Abstract

We improved the characteristics of 4H-SiC Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) by post-oxidation annealing in nitric oxide ambient (NO POA). Unlike the sacrificial oxidized SBDs, the SBDs with added NO POA exhibited highly uniform Schottky barrier height and nearly ideal breakdown voltage of 1990 V. Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy revealed nitrogen pileup at the sacrificially oxidized SiC surface after NO POA. We believe that NO POA electrically passivated the detrimental residual carbon at the SiC surface by forming C-N bonds, improving the performance of the SBDs.

Keywords

Schottky barriers; Schottky diodes; annealing; nitrogen compounds; oxidation; silicon compounds; time of flight mass spectroscopy; wide band gap semiconductors; NO; NO POA; SBD; Schottky barrier diodes; Schottky barrier height; SiC; barrier height uniformity; breakdown voltage; detrimental residual carbon; nitric oxide post-oxidation annealing; nitrogen pileup; time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy; voltage 1990 V; Annealing; Carbon; Leakage currents; Oxidation; Schottky barriers; Silicon carbide; Surface treatment; Breakdown voltage; Schottky diodes; power semiconductor devices; semiconductor-metal interfaces; silicon carbide (SiC); silicon carbide (SiC).;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2014.2331316

Filename

6849453