Effects of edge termination using dielectric field plates with different dielectric constants, thicknesses and bevel angles

This paper investigates the effects of dielectric constants, thicknesses and bevel angles on the breakdown voltage (V_BD) improvement of 4H - SiC Schottky Barrier Diodes (SBDs) using field plates (FP) edge termination. Three high-k dielectrics (AlN, AlON and HfO₂) are studied separately as FP materials. Besides the variation in dielectric constants, distinctive thicknesses and bevel angles are applied to probe their effects in enhancing V_BD of various device configurations. Simulation results obtained from TCAD Sentaurus device simulator have demonstrated that with proper design of materials, thicknesses and bevel angles, field crowding issue in planar devices can be well addressed and higher breakdown voltage can be acquired.