Influence of Temperature on Shockley Stacking Fault Expansion and Contraction in SiC PiN Diodes

Abstract

While Shockley stacking fault (SSF) creation and expansion within 4H-SiC bipolar devices is well known, only recently was it observed that this expansion and the associated increase in the forward voltage drop (V f) could be completely reversed via low-temperature annealing. Here we report the temperature dependence of the recovery rate of the V f drift via annealing, reporting an activation energy of 1.3 ± 0.3 eV. The V f drift was observed to saturate following extended electrical stressing, and it was observed that the value of V f at this saturation was inversely proportional to the stressing temperature. We also observed that SSF and V f drift recovery could occur in highly stressed diodes at elevated temperatures even under high current injection conditions (14 A/cm2).