Abstract
With its remarkable electro-thermal properties such as the highest known thermal conductivity (~22 W cm−1∙K−1 at RT of any material, high hole mobility (>2000 cm2 V−1 s−1), high critical electric field (>10 MV cm−1), and large band gap (5.47 eV), diamond has overwhelming advantages over silicon and other wide bandgap semiconductors (WBGs) for ultra-high-voltage and high-temperature (HT) applications (>3 kV and >450 K, respectively). However, despite their tremendous potential, fabricated devices based on this material have not yet delivered the expected high performance. The main reason behind this is the absence of shallow donor and acceptor species. The second reason is the lack of consistent physical models and design approaches specific to diamond-based devices that could significantly accelerate their development. The third reason is that the best performances of diamond devices are expected only when the highest electric field in reverse bias can be achieved, something that has not been widely obtained yet. In this context, HT operation and unique device structures based on the two-dimensional hole gas (2DHG) formation represent two alternatives that could alleviate the issue of the incomplete ionization of dopant species. Nevertheless, ultra-HT operations and device parallelization could result in severe thermal management issues and affect the overall stability and long-term reliability. In addition, problems connected to the reproducibility and long-term stability of 2DHG-based devices still need to be resolved.This review paper aims at addressing these issues by providing the power device research community with a detailed set of physical models, device designs and challenges associated with all the aspects of the diamond power device value chain, from the definition of figures of merit, the material growth and processing conditions, to packaging solutions and targeted applications. Finally, the paper will conclude with suggestions on how to design power converters with diamond devices and will provide the roadmap of diamond device development for power electronics.
Highlights
The increasing demand for a low-carbon and energy-efficient society has raised the need for new technologies for power electronics applications
Wide bandgap (WBG) and ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG) semiconductors have been researched to quantify their advantages in terms of efficiency, current density, thermal performance, radiation hardness, switching frequency and form factor of the overall power system compared to Si devices and systems [1–3]
Despite the issues related to switching loss predictions with diamond power devices discussed hereinbefore, one can assume several hypotheses to predict the switching performances of diamond unipolar power devices; the turn OFF losses with diamond FETs will be neglected as the channel current is turned OFF very quickly thanks to the smaller input capacitance and the high transconductance; the turn ON losses are not limited by electromagnetic interference (EMI) issues; the drift region is considered in NPT configuration; the device is of vertical type
Summary
The increasing demand for a low-carbon and energy-efficient society has raised the need for new technologies for power electronics applications In this context, wide bandgap (WBG) and ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG) semiconductors have been researched to quantify their advantages in terms of efficiency, current density, thermal performance, radiation hardness, switching frequency and form factor of the overall power system compared to Si devices and systems [1–3]. The future commercialization of such devices seems to be limited only to niche applications (mainly high power, frequency and temperature), future optimization of substrate growth techniques and device fabrication steps could enable the use of diamond devices in a wider range of applications This topical review is organized as follows.
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