Effects of Fermi pinning and quantum mechanisms on leakage current of 4H-SiC Schottky diodes

Abstract

Reverse bias leakage current through 4H-SiC Schottky diodes was modeled using quantum transmission theory and the theoretically calculated values were compared with the measured values from fabricated Schottky diodes. To account for interface defects, energy barriers due to Fermi pinning from previously observed defects were used in place of the ideal barrier structure predicted by the Schottky–Mott rule. Incorporating barriers with energy values set due to Fermi pinning at known defect energies resulted in better experimental agreement by many orders of magnitude.