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Silicon carbide (SiC) field plate terminated Schottky diodes using silicon dioxide (Si02) dielectric experience high electric field in the insulator and premature dielectric breakdown, attributed to the lower dielectric constant of the oxide. This problem can be addressed by using high-k dielectrics such as silicon nitride (Si3N4) that will reduce the field, increase the breakdown voltage and consequently improve the lifetime of the devices. While the advantages of single step field-plate terminated diodes are well-known, the breakdown voltage can be improved even further using a dual-step field-plate termination. Our 2D-numerical simulations using MEDICI have shown an improvement in breakdown voltages in excess of 25% compared to the traditional single-step field-plate terminated diodes.

Reactive ion etching of SiC induced surface damage, e.g., micromasking effect induced coarse and textured surface, is one of the main concerns in the fabrication of SiC based power devices [1]. Based on CHF3 + O2 plasma, 4H-SiC was etched under a wide range of RF power. Extreme coarse and textured etched surfaces were observed under certain etching conditions. A super-linear relationship was found between the surface roughness and RF power when the latter was varied from 40 to 160 W. A further increase in the RF power to 200 W caused the surface roughness to drop abruptly from its maximum value of 182.4 nm to its minimum value of 1.3 nm. Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) results revealed that besides the Al micromasking effect, the carbon residue that formed a carbon-rich layer, could also play a significant role in affecting the surface roughness. Based on the AES results, an alternative explanation on the origin of the coarse surface is proposed.

The drain-induced barrier lowering (DIBL) effect in 4H-SiC MESFETs has been studied using the physical drift and diffusion model. Our simulation results showed that the high drain voltage typically applied in short-channel 4H-SiC MESFETs could substantially reduce the channel barrier and result in large threshold voltage shift. It is also found that the DIBL effect is more dependent on the ratio of the gate length to channel thickness (Lg/a), rather than the channel thickness itself. In order to minimize the DIBL effect, the ratio of Lg/a should be kept greater than 3 for practical 4H-SiC MESFETs.

In this work, we present results on the study of bonding and concentration of carbon in 4H-SiC MOS structure by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The XPS spectra were fitted by several Gaussian lineshape functions. It is found that the so-called carbon clusters (C-C bonds) appear at the interface of SiO2/SiC, but are not seen in the oxide bulk. However, there are still some SiOxCy and Si-C bonds inside the oxide and the integrated area ratio of SiOxCy/Si-C bonds increases when further away from the SiO2/SiC interface. These observations can be interpreted in terms of the dynamic oxidation process that transforms Si-C bonds into SiOxCy bonds, which are then further oxidized to form SiO2 bonds.