High-purity semi-insulating 4H-SiC as a high-voltage switch material

Author

James, C. ; Hettler, C. ; Dickens, J.

Author_Institution

Center for Pulsed Power & Power Electron., Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX, USA

fYear

2010

fDate

23-27 May 2010

Firstpage

282

Lastpage

284

Abstract

A photoconductive semiconductor switch (PCSS) fabricated from high-purity semi-insulating (HPSI) 4H-SiC is presented. This switch shows improvement over similar designs based on 6H-SiC due to higher carrier mobility and longer carrier lifetimes. Using a novel micropipe identification method, vertical PCSS devices have been fabricated from c-plane wafers that lead to higher hold-off voltage and decreased on-state resistance as compared to a lateral geometry. Operation of the photo switch in both on- and off-state is demonstrated and material characterization via microwave photoconductance decay (MPCD) is given.

Keywords

carrier lifetime; carrier mobility; insulating materials; semiconductor switches; silicon compounds; wide band gap semiconductors; MPCD; PCSS device; SiC; c-plane wafer; carrier lifetime; carrier mobility; hold-off voltage; lateral geometry; micropipe identification method; microwave photoconductance decay; on-state resistance; photoconductive semiconductor switch device; semiinsulating material; Contacts; Indium tin oxide; Materials; Optical switches; Resistance; Silicon carbide;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Power Modulator and High Voltage Conference (IPMHVC), 2010 IEEE International

Conference_Location

Atlanta, GA

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-7131-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IPMHVC.2010.5958348

Filename

5958348