This paper studies two-dimensional analysis of the surface state effect on current gain for a 4H–SiC bipolar junction transistor (BJT). Simulation results indicate the mechanism of current gain degradation, which is surface Fermi level pinning leading to a strong downward bending of the energy bands to form the channel of surface electron recombination current. The experimental results are well-matched with the simulation, which is modeled by exponential distributions of the interface state density replacing the single interface state trap. Furthermore, the simulation reveals that the oxide quality of the base emitter junction interface is very important for 4H–SiC BJT performance.

In this paper, a new structure of a 4H-SiC bipolar junction transistor (BJT) with a buried layer (BL) in the base is presented. The current gain shows an approximately 100% increase compared with that of the conventional structure. This is attributed to the creation of a built-in electric field for the minority carriers to transport in the base which is explained based on 2D device simulations. The optimized design of the buried layer region is also considered by numeric simulations.