Influence of Shockley stacking fault propagation and contraction on electrical behavior of 4H-SiC pin diodes and DMOSFETs

Caldwell, Joshua D.; Stahlbush, Robert E.; Glembocki, O. J.; Hobart, Karl D.; Imhoff, Eugene A.; Tadjer, Marko J.; Liu, K.X.

doi:10.1109/isdrs.2007.4422438

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…However, it is also important to test that this model is consistent with the more recently reported experiments investigating the influence of temperature, applied bias and total injected charge (bias time) on SF dynamics and the corresponding changes in V f . 14,27,28 Presented in Fig. 3(a) is a generalized energy band diagram illustrating the relative positions of F E (blue line, left) and SSF E (red line, right) in a low-doped n-type epitaxial film or pin diode drift layer at room temperature and thermal equilibrium.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, it needs to be stated that the actual motion of the SFs is initiated and continued due to the reduction in the activation barrier of the kink-pair formation process, with the kink-pairs providing the nucleation point for PD forward or reverse propagation, which is the critical step governing SF motion. This model has been used to 14,[25][26][27][28]47 Miyanagi et al, 24 and Zhang and Skowronski 29 in which observations of SF contraction, V f drift recovery, temperaturemediated SF expansion and the current-induced recovery effect were reported. This model does not take into account the various complications that arise from incorporating the continuously expanding DOS as more and larger SFs are created or the varied injection profile that these SFs experience as they grow along the 8 0 tilted basal plane from the BPD from where they nucleated towards one of the two interfaces of the device structure.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There has been some recent success at limiting BPD densities during epitaxial growth by leveraging the aforementioned BPD 'turning' phenomenon, [10][11][12][13] however, their density still remains appreciable and therefore over time, SF-induced device degradation still occurs. Furthermore, it has also been reported that this degradation is not limited strictly to bipolar devices, but also adversely affects unipolar devices such as DMOSFETs, 14,15 VJFETs, 16 and MPS diodes 14 where bipolar injection into the active area of the device is possible.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the Driving Force of Shockley Stacking Fault Motion in 4H-SiC

et al. 2009

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Determining the primary driving force for Shockley stacking fault (SF) expansion within 4H-SiC has been of intense interest due to the deleterious effects of these defects upon the electrical characteristics of bipolar SiC devices. Previoulsy reported models have focused on determining the reasons for the perceived improved thermodynamic stability of the SFs, which are planes of SiC with the 3C-SiC polytype, with respect to the 4H-SiC host lattice. However, annealing and high temperature device operation experiments have clearly shown that SFs are not the thermodynamically preferred state of 4H-SiC in the absence of excess injected carriers. Here, we introduce and discuss a possible mechanism governing SF expansion and contraction that is consistent with previously reported experimental observations and present further experimental and simulation results that support this model.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the Driving Force of Shockley Stacking Fault Motion in 4H-SiC

et al. 2009

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“…The generation and expansion of recombination-induced stacking faults (SFs) or BPDs in 4H-SiC devices results in various forms of electrical degradation which have been widely discussed in the literature [1]. In the active area of the device, Shockley-type stacking faults (SSFs) can impede current flow and, as a result, increase the forward voltage drop, reverse leakage and on-state resistance [2]. The elimination of defects causing such degradation needs to be taken into account and have to be erased in order to enhance the performance and improve reliability of SiC-based power devices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stacking Faults Originating from Star-Defects in 4H-SiC

Hageali

Mahadik

Stahlbush

et al. 2023

DDF

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Intense efforts are currently in progress to study various sources of basal plane dislocations (BPDs) in SiC epitaxial layers. BPDs can generate Shockley-type stacking faults (SSFs) in SiC epitaxial layers, which have been shown to be associated with the degradation of power devices. This study shows that the star-shaped defect can be a source of several BPDs in the epitaxial layer. We investigate the complex microstructure of the star defect, the generation of BPDs, and expansion of SSFs using various complementary microscopy and optical techniques. We show direct evidence that star-defects can be a nucleation point of single-SSFs that can expand at the core of the defect. Newly found secondary dislocation arrays extending over a few centimeters away are found to be emanating from the primary arms of the star defect. The presence of such dislocation walls and the expansion of single-SSFs will affect the yield of numerous die on a wafer. Further understanding of the formation mechanism of stacking faults generated from star-defects as provided in this study helps understand their effect on SiC-based devices, which is crucial to assess device reliability.

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“…The generation of stacking faults defects in the device active region causes degradation of SiC devices during long-time operation or during heating of the substrate or devices [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Therefore, power device degradation takes place due to phase transformations in SiC devices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

3C-6H transformation in heated cubic silicon carbide 3C-SiC

Vlaskina¹

2011

Semicond. Phys. Quantum Electron. Optoelectron.

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Abstract.Results of the research on the photoluminescence study of the 3C-6H-SiC phase transformation are presented. 3C-SiC crystals with in grown 3C-6H transformation and pure perfect 3C-SiC crystals grown by the Tairov-Tsvetkov method without a polytypes joint after high temperature annealing were investigated. Fine structure at the energy of E = 2.73, 2.79 eV, E = 2.588 eV, and E = 2.48 eV that appeared after annealing was described. The role of stacking faults in the process of structure transformation was investigated.

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Influence of Shockley stacking fault propagation and contraction on electrical behavior of 4H-SiC pin diodes and DMOSFETs

Cited by 5 publications

References 7 publications

On the Driving Force of Shockley Stacking Fault Motion in 4H-SiC

On the Driving Force of Shockley Stacking Fault Motion in 4H-SiC

Stacking Faults Originating from Star-Defects in 4H-SiC

3C-6H transformation in heated cubic silicon carbide 3C-SiC

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