Current transport mechanism of AlGaN-channel Schottky barrier diode with extremely low leakage current and high blocking voltage of 2.55 kV

Abstract

This Letter presents work on lateral AlGaN-channel Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) with impressive reverse blocking characteristics and low onset voltage (VON). A low reverse current (IR) of 28 nA/mm and low VON of 0.60 V are obtained by utilizing an AlGaN back barrier layer with high Al composition and low work function metal as the anode. The fabricated AlGaN-channel SBD with an anode–cathode distance (LAC) of 30 μm achieves a high blocking voltage of 2.55 kV and a power figure-of-merit of 363 MW/cm2. Meanwhile, the current transport mechanism of AlGaN-channel SBDs goes through thermionic emission, thermionic field emission, and trap-assisted tunneling as the reverse bias is gradually increased. The thermal activation energy (EA) is calculated to be 141.3 meV at high reverse bias. IR at 475 K is only 3 μA/mm, which shows an adequate barrier height for rectifying at high temperature even with low VON. The AlGaN-channel SBDs show great promise for next-generation power electronics with balanced forward and reverse characteristics.