TCAD Device Modelling and Simulation of Wide Bandgap Power Semiconductors

Lophitis, Neophytos; Arvanitopoulos, Anastasios; Perkins, Samuel; Antoniou, Marina

doi:10.5772/intechopen.76062

Cited by 35 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 38 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…9. The work function of thin PtSi, = 4.98 [52] and the validated bulk 3C-SiC parameters [44], [53], listed in Table I, have been employed in the calculations. For the accurate representation of the in the bulk, the band gap narrowing phenomenon has been considered in the calculations in (1), where, 0 is the equilibrium concentration of majority electrons at = 300 .…”

Section: A the 3c-sic-on-si Schottky Barrier Diode Tcad Modelling Mementioning

confidence: 99%

A Defects-Based Model on the Barrier Height Behavior in 3C-SiC-on-Si Schottky Barrier Diodes

Arvanitopoulos

Antoniou

Jennings

et al. 2020

IEEE J. Emerg. Sel. Topics Power Electron.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

3C-Silicon Carbide (3C-SiC) Schottky Barrier Diodes on Silicon (Si) substrates (3C-SiC-on-Si) have been found to suffer of excessive sub-threshold current, despite the superior electrical properties of 3C-SiC. In turn, that is one of the factors deterring the commercialization of this technology. The forward Current-Voltage (I-V) characteristics in these devices carry considerable information about the material quality. In this context, an advanced Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) model is proposed and validated with measurements obtained from a fabricated and characterized Platinum/3C-SiCon-Si Schottky Barrier Diode with scope to shed light in the physical carrier transport mechanisms, the impact of traps and their characteristics on the actual device performance. The model includes defects originating from both the Schottky contact and the hetero-interface of 3C-SiC with Si, which allows the investigation of their impact on the magnification of the subthreshold current. Further, the simulation results and measured data allowed for the identification of additional distributions of interfacial states, the effect of which is linked to the observed nonuniformities of the Barrier Height value. A comprehensive characterization of the defects affecting the carrier transport mechanisms of the investigated 3C-SiC-on-Si power diode is thus achieved and the proposed TCAD model is able to accurately predict the device current both during forward and reverse bias conditions.

show abstract

Section: A the 3c-sic-on-si Schottky Barrier Diode Tcad Modelling Mementioning

confidence: 99%

A Defects-Based Model on the Barrier Height Behavior in 3C-SiC-on-Si Schottky Barrier Diodes

Arvanitopoulos

Antoniou

Jennings

et al. 2020

IEEE J. Emerg. Sel. Topics Power Electron.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The activation energies of acceptors in 3C-SiC are very similar to those in 4H-SiC: 0.26 eV for Al [35] and 0.34 eV for Ga [35]. The electron and hole mobilities are slightly lower than in 4H-SiC [36,37] and the carrier lifetime is slightly longer [38,39]. Equation (5) shows that the superinjection effect is not very sensitive to the carrier mobility, but inversely proportional to the carrier lifetime.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Superinjection of Holes in Homojunction Diodes Based on Wide-Bandgap Semiconductors

Khramtsov

Fedyanin

2019

Materials

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Electrically driven light sources are essential in a wide range of applications, from indication and display technologies to high-speed data communication and quantum information processing. Wide-bandgap semiconductors promise to advance solid-state lighting by delivering novel light sources. However, electrical pumping of these devices is still a challenging problem. Many wide-bandgap semiconductor materials, such as SiC, GaN, AlN, ZnS, and Ga2O3, can be easily n-type doped, but their efficient p-type doping is extremely difficult. The lack of holes due to the high activation energy of acceptors greatly limits the performance and practical applicability of wide-bandgap semiconductor devices. Here, we study a novel effect which allows homojunction semiconductor devices, such as p-i-n diodes, to operate well above the limit imposed by doping of the p-type material. Using a rigorous numerical approach, we show that the density of injected holes can exceed the density of holes in the p-type injection layer by up to four orders of magnitude depending on the semiconductor material, dopant, and temperature, which gives the possibility to significantly overcome the doping problem. We present a clear physical explanation of this unexpected feature of wide-bandgap semiconductor p-i-n diodes and closely examine it in 4H-SiC, 3C-SiC, AlN, and ZnS structures. The predicted effect can be exploited to develop bright-light-emitting devices, especially electrically driven nonclassical light sources based on color centers in SiC, AlN, ZnO, and other wide-bandgap semiconductors.

show abstract

“…Incomplete ionization of dopants in 4H-SiC is also considered, being the donor trap of Nitrogen located at 0.0709 eV with respect to the conduction band and the acceptor trap of Aluminum at 0.265 eV with respect to the valance band. Details regarding the simulation models and material parameters are described in our previous work [33][34][35].…”

Section: Device Design and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Retrograde p-Well for 10-kV Class SiC IGBTs

Tiwari

Antoniou

Lophitis

et al. 2019

IEEE Trans. Electron Devices

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this paper, we propose the use of a retrograde doping profile for the p-well for ultra-high voltage (>10kV) SiC IGBTs. We show that the retrograde p-well effectively addresses the punch-through issue, whilst offering a robust control over the gate threshold voltage. Both the punch-through elimination and gate threshold voltage control are crucial to high-voltage vertical IGBT architectures and are determined by the limits on the doping concentration and depth a conventional p-well implant can have. Without any punch-through, a 10kV SiC IGBT consisting of retrograde p-well yields gate threshold voltages in the range 6-7V with a gate-oxide thickness of 100nm. Gate oxide thickness is typically restricted to 50-60nm in SiC IGBTs if a conventional pwell with 1×10 17 cm -3 is utilized. We further show that the optimized retrograde p-well offers the most optimum switching performance. We propose that such an effective retrograde p-well, which requires low-energy shallow implants and thus key to minimize processing challenges and device development cost, is highly promising for the ultra-high voltage (>10kV) SiC IGBT technology.

show abstract

TCAD Device Modelling and Simulation of Wide Bandgap Power Semiconductors

Cited by 35 publications

References 38 publications

A Defects-Based Model on the Barrier Height Behavior in 3C-SiC-on-Si Schottky Barrier Diodes

A Defects-Based Model on the Barrier Height Behavior in 3C-SiC-on-Si Schottky Barrier Diodes

Superinjection of Holes in Homojunction Diodes Based on Wide-Bandgap Semiconductors

Retrograde p-Well for 10-kV Class SiC IGBTs

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About