The potential of diamond and SiC electronic devices for microwave and millimeter-wave power applications

Abstract

There is significant interest in developing microelectronic devices for blue emission, high temperature, high power, high frequency, and radiation hard applications. This interest has generated significant research effort in wide bandgap semiconductor material, in particular S i c and semiconducting diamond. Both of these materials are similar in crystal structure with half of the carbon atoms in the diamond structure replaced by Si to produce Sic. However, the latter material exists in a host of polytypes, the causes of which are not completely understood. The deposition of monocrystalline diamond at or below 1 atm total pressure at T<lOOO°C has been achieved on diamond substrates, although deposited film has been polycrystalline on all other substrates. For significant application to electronic devices, the heteroepitaxy of single crystal films of diamond and an understanding of mechanisms of nucleation and growth, methods of impurity introduction and activation, and further device development must be achieved. The technology of producing S i c is more advanced and the deposition of thin films and the associated technologies of impurity incorporation, etching, and electrical contacts have culminated in a host of solid-state devices. In this paper, the potential of S i c and diamond for producing microwave and millimeter-wave electronic devices is reviewed. Both of these materials have been proposed for fabrication of devices capable ofproducing RF output power signigcantly greater than can be achieved with comparable devices fabricated from commonly used semiconductors such as Si and GaAs. Theoretical calculations are presented of the RF performance potential of several candidate high frequency device structures: the MEtal Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MESFET), the IMPact Avalanche Transit-Time (IMPATT) diode, and the Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT).

Light ions response of silicon carbide detectors

“…In particular the search for new materials, more suitable for such extreme operating conditions than the usual silicon semiconductor has received a lot of interest. Among the investigated materials, the silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductor has raised large interest and has been already used in a wide range of applications [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. In particular, recent work has been done on the development of SiC radiation detectors [9,10] and on the characterization of their performances.…”

Modeling and simulation of non-ideal characteristics of vertical Mo/diamond Schottky barrier diode based on MIS model

“…Simulation of reverse bias characteristics is in general more challenging because of unclear metal-diamond interface and quality of fabricated diamond crystal. Although several values of diamond impact ionization coefficients have been reported in literature [8,21,22], there is no agreement on accurate values to this date [18]. In our simulation, we did not implement impact ionization model.…”

“…Even though several high blocking voltage SBDs have been reported [3][4][5], typical diamond SBD has average breakdown electric field below 4 MV/cm, far below theoretical field of 10-20 MV/cm [3,[6][7][8]. Rectification performances and Schottky barrier height data reported so far vary widely and are highly dependent on fabrication process [9,10].…”

Switching characteristics of a diamond Schottky barrier diode

“…The research and development of SiC power devices has been promoted, and the SiC Schottky barrier diode (SBD) is already produced commercially [2]. A diamond semiconductor also provides wide-band-gap material, which has a 5.5 [eV] band gap and a 1.1-21.5 [MV/cm] critical electrical field [3]. It is expected to be used as the semiconductor material for the next generation of power electronics circuits, e.g.…”

“…Boron (B) is doped as a p-type impurity. Ruthenium (Ru) is used as the Schottky metal to achieve high thermal stability [3,4]. An SiC SBD (Infineon SPT06S60A 600 [V], 6 [A], 11.9 × 10 −3 cm 2 active area) is used for comparative study.…”