Observation of the generation of stacking faults and active degradation measurements on off-axis and on-axis 4H-SiC PiN diodes

Abstract

PiN diodes have been fabricated on nominally on-axis Si-face 4H-SiC material and their electrical characteristics are compared to PiN diodes processed with exactly the same device process recipe on 8°-off 4H-SiC material. Some diodes had an optical window on the top metal contact to observe the possible stacking faults generation and motion with photo emission microscopy. The diodes were electrically characterized in forward voltage to test their stability. Electrical characterizations demonstrate that there is no noticeable degradation for the diodes processed on on-axis 4H-SiC substrate and with optical characterization the formation of stacking faults was not observed.