Effects of p and n pillar widths on electrical characteristicsof super junction SiGe power diodes

Abstract

By combining merits of both SJ structure and SiGe material, a novel super junction (SJ) SiGe power diode is presented. The two important characteristics of SJ SiGe diode are its columnar structure of alternating p/n pillars substituting n- base region of conventional Si p+n-n+ diode and its far thinner strained SiGe p+ layer, which can overcome the drawbacks of conventional Si power switching diodes, such as when the reverse blocking voltage is higher, the forward voltage drop is larger and the reverse recovery time becomes longer. For the SJ SiGe diode with 20% Ge content, the following conclusions can be obtained compared with comparable conventional Si power diodes: the breakdown voltages increase by 1.6 times, the forward voltage drop is reduced by 60 mV (at a current density of 10 A/cm2) and the softness factor S increases by 2 times. Though the reverse recovery time is shortened slightly, the peak reverse current density decreases by 17% and the soft recovery characteristics is improved notedly. The key parameters of the p and n pillar widths have imporant effects on the forward conduction characteristic, reverse blocking characteristic and reverse recovery characteristic of SJ SiGe power diode. The smaller the pillar width becomes, the higher the breakdown voltage is and the lower the reverse leakage current is, whereas the forward voltage drop increases slightly. The pillar width has no obviously monotonic effect on the reverse recovery characteristic. If the width is too small, the soft reverse recovery characteristic is degenerated. To optimize the parameter of pillar width, we can obtain excellent SJ SiGe diode with fast recovery speed, high breakdown voltage and low forward drop at the same time.