Surface and interface issues in wide band gap semiconductor electronics

Wide band gap (WGB) materials are the most promising semiconductors for future electronic devices, and are candidates to replace the conventional materials (Si, GaAs, …) that are approaching their physical limits. Among WBG materials, silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) have achieved the largest advancements with respect to their material quality and device processing. Clearly, the devices performances depend on several surface and interface properties, which in turn are often crucially determined by the quality of the available material, as well as by the device processing maturity. In this paper, some surface and interface issues related to SiC and GaN devices processing are reviewed. First, the control of metal/SiC barrier uniformity and surface preparation will be discussed with respect to the performance of Schottky-based devices. Moreover, the impact of high-temperature annealing required for high-voltage Schottky diodes and MOSFETs fabrication, on the surface morphology and device performances will also be briefly presented. In the second part, it will be shown that for GaN the material quality is still the main concern, since dislocations have a severe influence on the current transport and barrier homogeneity of metal/GaN interfaces. Other practical implications of thermal annealing and surface passivation during GaN-based devices fabrication will also be addressed.