We propose the use of an aluminum oxynitride (AlON) gate insulator for 4H-SiC MIS devices. Since direct deposition of AlON on 4H-SiC substrate generates a large amount of interface charge due to an interfacial reaction, a thick AlON layer was deposited on underlying thin SiO2 thermally grown in N2O ambient. To reduce the negative fixed charge density in the aluminum oxide (Al2O3) film, we used reactive sputtering of Al in an N2/O2 gas mixture. The fabricated MIS capacitor with AlON/SiO2 stacked gate dielectric shows no flat band voltage shift and negligible capacitance-voltage hysteresis (30 mV), indicating the dielectric is almost free from both fixed charges and electrical defects. Owing to the high dielectric constant of AlON (k=6.9), as compared to single N2O-SiO2 gate insulator, significant gate leakage reduction was achieved by AlON/SiO2 stacked gate dielectrics even at high-temperature, especially in a high electric field condition (>5 MV/cm).
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