Suppression of partial dislocation glide motion during contraction of stacking faults in SiC epitaxial layers by hydrogen ion implantation

Abstract

Bipolar degradation in SiC bipolar devices, in which stacking faults expand to accommodate the movement of partial dislocations during forward bias application, is one of the critical problems impeding the widespread implementation of SiC power devices. Here we clearly demonstrate that the movement of partial dislocations can be suppressed by proton implantation, which has good compatibility with semiconductor processing, through investigation of the contraction behavior of SFs in SiC epitaxial layers subjected to proton implantation.

Effects of proton implantation for expansion of basal plane dislocations in SiC toward suppression of bipolar degradation: review and perspective

“…45,46) Furthermore, the contraction of 1SSFs, which is independent of carrier lifetime, can also be suppressed through proton implantation. 47) On the other hand, other groups have recently reported the importance of carrier lifetime reduction in suppressing bipolar degradation. 66,67) Fig.…”

“…62) Based on these insights, our study focused on proton implantation, a technique already used extensively in semiconductor processes. 43,[45][46][47] 4. Proton implantation…”

“…We performed proton implantation on the 4H-SiC epitaxial layers and 365 nm UV illumination at 10 Wcm −2 at 100 °C to induce 1SSF expansion. 45,47) Without proton implantation, BPD easily expanded to 1SSF under UV illumination. Even after UV illumination for 120 h, no apparent 1SSF expansion was observed after 0.6 MeV proton implantation, as shown in Fig.…”

“…We have discussed ion implantation techniques to reduce the carrier lifetime in drift layers, 43,44) and recently presented proton implantation as a novel approach. [45][46][47] This paper reviews the mechanisms behind dislocation mobility reduction and effects of ion/ proton implantation on suppressing the BPD expansion. We also provide perspectives on the developed technique based on a comparative discussion with other methods and discuss whether proton implantation can be a last resort approach for solving bipolar degradation.…”

Effect of dislocations on carrier recombination and photoelectrochemical activity in polished and unpolished TiO2 and SrTiO3 crystals

“…Dislocations degrade the performance of semiconductor devices. [33][34][35][36] For instance, various types of dislocations in silicon carbide (SiC), including threading screw dislocations (TSDs), threading edge dislocations (TEDs), and basal plane dislocations (BPDs), affect the charge carrier lifetime and device performance. [37][38][39][40] Moreover, recently, dislocations have been also investigated in TiO 2 41,42 and SrTiO 3 , 43,44 especially for the effect on tunable electrical conductivity in functional oxide ceramics.…”