Temperature-Dependent Characteristics of 4H-SiC Buried Grid JBS Diodes

Abstract

4H-SiC Schottky Barrier Diodes (SBD) have been developed using p-type buried grids (BGs) formed by Al implantation. In order to reduce on-state resistance and improve forward conduction, the doping concentration of the channel region between the buried grids was increased. The fabricated diodes were encapsulated with TO-254 packages and electrically evaluated. Experimental forward and reverse characteristics were measured in the temperature range from 25 °C to 250 °C. On bare die level, the forward voltage drop was reduced from 5.36 V to 3.90 V at 20 A as the channel doping concentration was increased, which introduced a low channel resistance. By the encapsulation in TO-254 package, the forward voltage drop was decreased approximately 10% due to a lower contact resistance. The on-state resistance of the identical device measured on bare die and in TO-254 package increased with increasing temperature due to the decreased electron mobility in the drift region resulting in higher resistance. The incremental contact resistances of the bare dies were larger than in the packaged devices. One key issue associated with conventional Junction Barrier Schottky (JBS) diodes is a high leakage current at high temperature operation over 200 °C. The developed Buried Grid JBS (BG JBS) diode has significantly reduced leakage current due to a better field shielding at the Schottky contact. The leakage current of the packaged BG JBS diodes is compared to pure SBD and commercial JBS diodes.