Silicon Carbide Technology for High- and Ultra-High-Voltage Bipolar Junction Transistors and PiN Diodes

Silicon carbide (SiC) is an attractive material for high-voltage and high-temperature electronic applications owing to the wide bandgap, high critical electric field, and high thermal conductivity. High- and ultra-high-voltage silicon carbide bipolar devices, such as bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) and PiN diodes, have the advantage of a low ON-resistance due to conductivity modulation compared to unipolar devices. However, in order to be fully competitive with unipolar devices, it is important to further improve the off-state and on-state characteristics, such as breakdown voltage, leakage current, common-emitter current gain, switching, current density, and ON-resistance. In order to achieve a high breakdown voltage with a low leakage current, an efficient and easy to fabricate junction edge protection or termination is needed. Among different proposed junction edge protections, a mesa design integrated with junction termination extensions (JTEs) is a powerful approach. In this work, implantation-free 4H-SiC BJTs in two classes of voltage, i.e., 6 kV-class and 15 kV-class with an efficient and optimized implantation-free junction termination (O-JTE) and multiple-shallow-trench junction termination extension (ST-JTE) are designed, fabricated and characterized. These terminations result in high termination efficiency of 92% and 93%, respectively. The 6 kV-class BJTs shows a maximum current gain of β = 44. A comprehensive study on the geometrical design is done in order to improve the on-state performances. For the first time, new cell geometries (square and hexagon) are presented for the SiC BJTs. The results show a significant improvement of the on-state characteristics because of a better utilization of the base area. At a given current gain, new cell geometries show a 42% higher current density and 21% lower ON-resistance. The results of this study, including an optimized fabrication process, are utilized in the 15 kV-class BJTs where a record high current gain of β = 139 is achieved. Ultra-high-voltage PiN diodes in two classes of voltage, i.e., 10+ kV using on-axis 4H-SiC and 15 kV-class off-axis 4H-SiC, are presented. O-JTE is utilized for 15 kV-class PiN diodes, while three steps ion-implantation are used to form the JTE in 10+ kV PiN diodes. Carbon implantation followed by high-temperature annealing is also performed for the 10+ kV PiN diodes in order to enhance the lifetime. Both type diodes depict conductivity modulation in the drift layer. No bipolar degradation is observed in 10+ kV PiN diodes.QC 20161209