On the ohmicity of Schottky contacts

Abstract

An analysis is made of the conditions for ohmic contacts realization in the case of Schottky contacts. Based on the classical notions about the mechanisms of current flow, we consider the generalized model of Schottky contact that takes into account the thermionic current of majority charge carriers and recombination current of minority charge carriers in Schottky contacts with a dielectric gap. An analysis of the results given by that model made it possible to obtain ohmicity criteria for Schottky contacts and compare the conditions for low injection level and ohmicity of Schottky contacts in the case of silicon-based contacts. It is shown that conditions for Schottky contact ohmicity do not coincide with those for p-n junctions.