Breakdown characteristics of 12–20 kV-class 4H-SiC PiN diodes with improved junction termination structures

Author

Niwa, Hiroki ; Feng, Gan ; Suda, Jun ; Kimoto, Tsunenobu

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron. Sci. & Eng., Kyoto Univ., Kyoto, Japan

fYear

2012

fDate

3-7 June 2012

Firstpage

381

Lastpage

384

Abstract

Ultrahigh-voltage 4H-SiC PiN diodes with improved junction termination extension (JTE) structures have been investigated. Breakdown characteristics of 4H-SiC PiN diodes with conventional single-zone JTE was shown to be severely affected by the charge near the SiO₂/SiC interface from experiment and device simulation. Taking the effect of the interface charge into account, and by using “Space-Modulated” JTE structure with a wide optimum JTE-dose window to tolerate the impact of interface charge, we achieved a breakdown voltage of 21.7 kV (81 % of the ideal breakdown voltage calculated from the epilayer structure), which is the highest breakdown voltage among any semiconductor devices ever reported.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; p-i-n diodes; power semiconductor diodes; silicon compounds; wide band gap semiconductors; SiC; breakdown characteristics; breakdown voltage; epilayer structure; improved JTE structures; improved junction termination structures; semiconductor devices; single-zone JTE; space-modulated JTE structure; ultrahigh-voltage 4H-PiN diodes; voltage 12 kV to 20 kV; voltage 21.7 kV; Electric fields; Junctions; Leakage current; PIN photodiodes; Schottky diodes; Silicon carbide; PiN diode; interface charge; junction termination extension (JTE); silicon carbide (SiC);

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs (ISPSD), 2012 24th International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Bruges

ISSN

1943-653X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-1594-5

Electronic_ISBN

1943-653X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ISPSD.2012.6229101

Filename

6229101