GaN基肖特基势垒二极管结构优化研究进展

作为宽禁带半导体器件,GaN基肖特基势垒二极管(SBD)有耐高压、耐高温、导通电阻小等优良特性,这使得它在电力电子等领域有广泛应用。本文首先综述了SBD发展要解决的问题;然后,介绍了GaN SBD结构、工作原理及结构优化研究进展;接下来,总结了AlGaN/GaN SBD结构、工作原理及结构优化研究进展,并着重从AlGaN/GaN SBD的外延片结构、肖特基电极结构以及边缘终端结构等角度,阐述了这些结构的优化对AlGaN/GaN SBD性能的影响;最后,对器件进一步的发展方向进行了展望。     

n-GaN肖特基势垒二极管的高温电子辐照效应

本文研究了n-GaN肖特基势垒二极管的高温电子辐照效应。实验结果显示,高温下进行电子辐照,界面处辐照诱生缺陷会同时产生和被退火恢复;器件的击穿电压和反向漏电流受辐照影响减弱,其电学阈值增加;由辐照效应导致的可见光响应的影响仍然存在。     

AlGaN/GaN场板结构高电子迁移率晶体管的场板尺寸优化分析

对不同场板尺寸的AlGaN/GaN 场板结构高电子迁移率晶体管进行了研究,建立简化模型分析场板长度对沟道电场分布的影响.结果表明,调整钝化层厚度和场板长度都可以调制沟道电场的分布形状,当场板长度较小时,随着长度的增大器件击穿电压随之增加,而当长度增大到一定程度后器件击穿电压不再增加.通过优化场板长度,器件击穿电压提高了64%,且实验结果与模拟结果相符. 关键词： AlGaN/GaN 击穿电压 场板长度     

势垒可调的氧化镓肖特基二极管

氧化镓作为新一代宽禁带材料,其器件具有优越的性能.本文仿真研究了n~+高浓度外延薄层对氧化镓肖特基二极管的势垒调控.模拟结果显示,当n型氧化镓外延厚度为5 nm、掺杂浓度为2.6×10¹⁸ cm^-3时,肖特基二极管纵向电流密度高达496.88 A/cm~2、反向击穿电压为182.30 V、导通电阻为0.27 mΩ·cm~2,品质因子可达123.09 MW/cm~2.进一步研究发现肖特基二极管的性能与n~+外延层厚度和浓度有关,其电流密度随n~+外延层的厚度和浓度的增大而增大.分析表明,n~+外延层对势垒的调控在于镜像力、串联电阻及隧穿效应综合影响,其中镜像力和串联电阻对势垒的降低作用较小,而高电场下隧穿效应变得十分显著,使得热发射电流增大的同时,隧穿电流得到大幅度提升,从而进一步提升了氧化镓肖特基二极管的性能.     

GaN肖特基二极管的正向电流输运和低频噪声行为

首先测量了GaN肖特基二极管的正向变温电流-电压特性,研究了其电流输运机制,然后分析了在不同注入电流条件下的低频噪声行为.结果表明:1)在正向高电压区,热发射机制占主导,有效势垒高度约为1.25 eV;2)在正向低偏压区(V <0.8 V),与位错相关的缺陷辅助隧穿电流占主导,有效势垒高度约为0.92 eV (T=300 K);3)在极小电流(I <1μA)和极低频率(f <10 Hz)下,洛伦兹型噪声才会出现;电子的渡越时间取决于多个缺陷对电子的不断捕获和释放过程,典型时间常数约为30 ms (I=1μA);4)在更高频率和电流下,低频1/f噪声占主导;电流的输运主要受到势垒高度的随机波动的影响,所对应的系数约为1.1.     

GaN FP-HEMTs中击穿电压与电流崩塌的关系

研究了钝化在抑制电流崩塌的同时，会引起HEMT器件击穿电压的下降.而采用场板结构的AlGaN/GaN场板HEMT器件(FP-HEMT)的击穿电压从46V提高到了148V，表明了场板对提高击穿电压有显著作用(3倍以上).接着，比较了FP-HEMT器件与常规HEMT器件，钝化后HEMT器件在应力前后的电流崩塌程度，得出了采用场板结构比之钝化对器件抑制电流崩塌有更明显作用的结论.从理论上和实验上都表明，采用场板结构能够很好解决提高击穿电压与抑制电流崩塌之间的矛盾. 关键词： GaN 场板 击穿电压 电流崩塌     

Ni/Au/n-GaN肖特基二极管可导位错的电学模型

可导线性位错被普遍认为是GaN基器件泄漏电流的主要输运通道,但其精细的电学模型目前仍不清楚.鉴于此,本文基于对GaN肖特基二极管的电流输运机制分析提出可导位错的物理模型,重点强调:1)位于位错中心的深能级受主态(主要Ga空位)电离后库仑势较高,理论上对泄漏电流没有贡献; 2)位错周围的高浓度浅能级施主态电离后能形成势垒高度较低的薄表面耗尽层,可引发显著隧穿电流,成为主要漏电通道;3)并非传统N空位,认为O替代N所形成的浅能级施主缺陷应是引发漏电的主要电学态,其热激活能约为47.5 meV.本工作亦有助于理解其他GaN器件的电流输运和电学退化行为.     

InAs量子点在肖特基势垒二极管输运特性中的影响

在77到292K的范围内,系统研究了含InAs自组装量子点的金属-半导体-金属双肖特基势垒二极管的输运特性.随着温度上升,量子点的存储效应引起的电流回路逐渐减小.在测试温度范围内,通过量子点的共振隧穿过程在电流电压(I-V)曲线中造成台阶结构,且使电流回路随温度的上升急剧减小.根据肖特基势垒的反向I-V曲线,计算了势垒的反向饱和电流密度和平均理想因子.发现共振随穿效应使肖特基势垒在更大的程度上偏离了理想情况,而量子点的电子存储效应主要改变了肖特基势垒的有效势垒高度,从而影响了势垒的反向饱和电流密度 关键词： 自组装量子点 肖特基势垒 电流-电压特性     

低反向漏电自支撑衬底AlGaN/GaN肖特基二极管

氮化镓材料具有大的禁带宽度(3.4 eV)、高的击穿场强(3.3 MV/cm),在高温、高压等方面有良好的应用前景.尤其是对于铝镓氮/氮化镓异质结构材料而言,由极化效应产生的高面密度和高迁移率二维电子气在降低器件导通电阻、提高器件工作效率方面具有极大的优势.由于缺乏高质量、大尺寸的氮化镓单晶衬底,常规氮化镓材料均是在蓝宝石、硅和碳化硅等异质衬底上外延而成.较大的晶格失配和热失配导致异质外延过程中产生密度高达10~7—10¹⁰ cm^–2的穿透位错,使器件性能难以进一步提升.本文采用基于自支撑氮化镓衬底的铝镓氮/氮化镓异质结构材料制备凹槽阳极结构肖特基势垒二极管,通过对欧姆接触区域铝镓氮势垒层刻蚀深度的精确控制,依托单步自对准凹槽欧姆接触技术解决了低位错密度自支撑氮化镓材料的低阻欧姆接触技术难题,实现了接触电阻仅为0.37Ω·mm的低阻欧姆接触;通过采用慢速低损伤刻蚀技术制备阳极凹槽区域,使器件阳极金属与氮化镓导电沟道直接接触,实现了高达3×107开关比的高性能器件,且器件开启电压仅为0.67 V, 425 K高温下,器件反向漏电仅为1.6×10...     

高击穿电压的AlGaN/GaN FP-HEMT研究与分析

就蓝宝石衬底上制备的AlGaN/GaN场板(field plate)HEMT器件、常规HEMT器件性能进行了分析对比.结果证明两种结构的器件直流参数变化不大，但是采用场板后器件的击穿电压从52V提高到了142V.在此基础上利用Sivaco软件对两种器件进行模拟仿真，深入分析了FP对器件击穿电压的影响.     

Design optimization of high breakdown voltage vertical GaN junction barrier Schottky diode with high-K/low-K compound dielectric structure

A vertical junction barrier Schottky diode with a high-$K$/low-$K$ compound dielectric structure is proposed and optimized to achieve a high breakdown voltage (BV). There is a discontinuity of the electric field at the interface of high-$K$ and low-$K$ layers due to the different dielectric constants of high-$K$ and low-$K$ dielectric layers. A new electric field peak is introduced in the n-type drift region of junction barrier Schottky diode (JBS), so the distribution of electric field in JBS becomes more uniform. At the same time, the effect of electric-power line concentration at the p-n junction interface is suppressed due to the effects of the high-$K$ dielectric layer and an enhancement of breakdown voltage can be achieved. Numerical simulations demonstrate that GaN JBS with a specific on-resistance ($R_{\rm on, sp}$) of 2.07 m$\Omega\cdot$cm$^{2}$ and a BV of 4171 V which is 167% higher than the breakdown voltage of the common structure, resulting in a high figure-of-merit (FOM) of 8.6 GW/cm$^{2}$, and a low turn-on voltage of 0.6 V.     

Leakage current and sub-bandgap photo-response of oxygen-plasma treated GaN Schottky barrier diodes

The effect of oxygen plasma treatment on the performance of GaN Schottky barrier diodes is studied. The GaN surface is intentionally exposed to oxygen plasma generated in an inductively coupled plasma etching system before Schottky metal deposition. The reverse leakage current of the treated diodes is suppressed in low bias range with enhanced diode ideality factor and series resistance. However, in high bias range the treated diodes exhibit higher reverse leakage current and corresponding lower breakdown voltage. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis reveals the growth of a thin GaO_x layer on GaN surface during oxygen plasma treatment. Under sub-bandgap light illumination, the plasma-treated diodes show larger photovoltaic response compared with that of untreated diodes, suggesting that additional defect states at GaN surface are induced by the oxygen plasma treatment.     

Hybrid-anode structure designed for a high-performance quasi-vertical GaN Schottky barrier diode

A quasi-vertical GaN Schottky barrier diode with a hybrid anode structure is proposed to trade off the on-resistance and the breakdown voltage. By inserting a SiN dielectric between the anode metal with a relatively small length, it suppresses the electric field crowding effect without presenting an obvious effect on the forward characteristics. The enhanced breakdown voltage is ascribed to the charge-coupling effect between the insulation dielectric layer and GaN. On the other hand, the current density is decreased beneath the dielectric layer with the increasing length of the SiN, resulting in a high on-resistance. Furthermore, the introduction of the field plate on the side wall forms an metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) channel and decreases the series resistance, but also shows an obvious electric field crowding effect at the bottom of the mesa due to the quasi-vertical structure.     

Barrier lowering and leakage current reduction in Ni-AlGaN/GaN Schottky diodes with an oxygen-treated GaN cap layer

We report on the effect of oxygen annealing for GaN surface on the Schottky barrier configuration and leakage current in Ni-AlGaN/GaN Schottky barrier diodes. After oxygen annealing, their turn-on voltage and reverse-bias leakage current characteristics are significantly improved due to a reduction in the Schottky barrier height (SBH) and suppression in the surface states respectively. Interface state density extracted from the Terman method was reduced by 2 orders of magnitude. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements show that the oxygen annealing induces Ga₂O₃ on the GaN surface. The formation of Ga₂O₃ reduces the interface state density as well as lowers the SBH through the modification of hybridized metal induced gap states.     

Role of Ga vacancies in enhancing the leakage current of GaN Schottky barrier ultraviolet photodetectors

The leakage current of GaN Schottky barrier ultraviolet photodetectors is investigated. It is found that the photodetectors adopting undoped GaN instead of lightly Si-doped GaN as an active layer show a much lower leakage current even when they have a higher dislocation density. It is also found that the density of Ga vacancies in undoped GaN is much lower than in Si-doped GaN. The Ga vacancies may enhance tunneling and reduce effective Schottky barrier height, leading to an increase of leakage current. It suggests that when undoped GaN is used as the active layer, it is necessary to reduce the leakage current of GaN Schottky barrier ultraviolet photodetector.     

Breakdown characteristics of AIGaN/GaN Schottky barrier diodes fabricated on a silicon substrate

In this work, the breakdown characteristics of AlGaN/GaN planar Schottky barrier diodes （SBDs） fabricated on the silicon substrate are investigated. The breakdown voltage （BV） of the SBDs first increases as a function of the anodeto-cathode distance and then tends to saturate at larger inter-electrode spacing. The saturation behavior of the BV is likely caused by the vertical breakdown through the intrinsic GaN buffer layer on silicon, which is supported by the post-breakdown primary leakage path analysis with the emission microscopy. Surface passivation and field plate termination are found effective to suppress the leakage current and enhance the BV of the SBDs. A high BV of 601 V is obtained with a low on-resistance of 3.15 mΩ·cm^2.     

Effect of anode area on the sensing mechanism of vertical GaN Schottky barrier diode temperature sensor

Effect of anode area on temperature sensing ability is investigated for a vertical GaN Schottky-barrier-diode sensor. The current-voltage-temperature characteristics are comparable to each other for Schottky barrier diodes with different anode areas, excepting the series resistance. In the sub-threshold region, the contribution of series resistance on the sensitivity can be ignored due to the relatively small current. The sensitivity is dominated by the current density. A large anode area is helpful for enhancing the sensitivity at the same current level. In the fully turn-on region, the contribution of series resistance dominates the sensitivity. Unfortunately, a large series resistance degrades the temperature error and linearity, implying that a larger anode area will help to decrease the series resistance and to improve the sensing ability.     

Breakdown characteristics of AlGaN/GaN Schottky barrier diodes fabricated on a silicon substrate

In this work, the breakdown characteristics of AlGaN/GaN planar Schottky barrier diodes(SBDs) fabricated on the silicon substrate are investigated. The breakdown voltage(BV) of the SBDs first increases as a function of the anodeto-cathode distance and then tends to saturate at larger inter-electrode spacing. The saturation behavior of the BV is likely caused by the vertical breakdown through the intrinsic GaN buffer layer on silicon, which is supported by the postbreakdown primary leakage path analysis with the emission microscopy. Surface passivation and field plate termination are found effective to suppress the leakage current and enhance the BV of the SBDs. A high BV of 601 V is obtained with a low on-resistance of 3.15 mΩ·cm2.     

Sulphide passivation of GaN based Schottky diodes

Wet chemical passivation of n-GaN surface was carried out by dipping GaN samples in ammonium sulphide diluted in aqueous and alcoholic solvent base solutions. Photoluminescence (PL) investigations indicated that sulphide solution effectively led to the reduction of GaN surface states. Increased band edge PL peak showed that S²⁻ ions are more active in alcohol based solvents. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed reduction in surface oxides by introduction of sulphide species. Ni/n-GaN Schottky barrier diodes were fabricated on passivated surfaces. Remarkable improvement in the Schottky barrier height (0.98 eV for passivated diodes as compared to 0.75 eV for untreated diodes) has been observed.