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The sensitivity of discrete large-area power devices to the design aspects of the termination region and to the charging effects of the electroactive passivation layer on top is presented in this work. The junction termination featuring the variation of lateral doping (VLD) is revisited for such devices by focusing on the interaction with the passivation material on top. To this purpose, an ideal dielectric (SiO 2 ) is compared with differently-doped diamond-like carbon (DLC) by incorporating the passivation layer in the TCAD setup. The simulation analysis rigorously explains the impact of the DLC material on the layout reoptimization of a specific reference diode.

An electroactive passivation for high-voltage diodes with bevel termination has been investigated based on diamond-like carbon (DLC) films. Variations of the DLC properties, i.e., conductivity and geometry, have been investigated by experiments and numerical simulations to the purpose of gaining an insight on their influence on the diode leakage current and breakdown voltage. The role played by the DLC/Si interface has been investigated by characterizing metal-DLC-Si devices. Both Boron and Nitrogen doping have been investigated and a TCAD setup has been provided accounting for the main transport features of the DLC material with different doping configurations. A significant polarization effect has been observed in the DLC material, which improves the DLC performance as a passivation material. High-voltage diodes have been characterized and simulated with different DLC layers on top of the bevel termination in order to identify the role played by conductivity and polarization on the blocking state. The correlation of leakage current and voltage breakdown with the DLC doping and thickness is provided and explained by the TCAD simulation results.

The diamond-like carbon (DLC) is important for passivation of junction termination in high power devices due to its excellent electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties. While the role of conductivity and polarization of the DLC layer on the blocking capability of a p-n junction has been explained recently, the thermal behavior still needs to be addressed. For this purpose, the diode leakage current was measured on large area power diodes with negative bevel coated by the DLC in a typical industrial range between 300 and 413B K. An unusual deviation from the expected Arrhenius law was experimentally observed. A predictive TCAD model, which incorporates the effect of the DLC layer, has been developed to study the impact of the DLC layer parameters on diode thermal performance. Both the electrostatic features and charge transport mechanisms through and along the DLC/Silicon interface have been modeled over a wide range of temperatures. Different DLC/Silicon doping combinations have been analyzed to explain the main effects determining the temperature dependence of diode leakage current and breakdown voltage. A complete validation of the TCAD approach has been achieved.

This paper presents an Analog Front-End for integrated Wake-Up Radios. The proposed Analog Front-End is composed of an envelope detector, a Schmitt trigger and a biasing block and has three distinctive features: i) clockless solution, which does not require an always-on oscillator; ii) an envelope detector with band-pass response which leads to smaller capacitance, thus easier integration, and low-frequency noise suppression; iii) temperature compensated biasing scheme. An active scheme for the detector is used based on MOSFETs operated in the subthreshold region with a self-biased topology. Advantages and drawbacks of the proposed architecture are analyzed. A prototype was fabricated in the STMicroelectronics 90-nm BCD technology. The overall power consumption, excluding the biasing block, is 36 nW at 1.2 V. A 10 -3 Bit Error Rate is measured with a 771-MHz, 2-kbit/s OOK modulated input signal with -46 dBm power at room temperature and at -20 °C, and with almost -43 dBm power at 60 °C.

Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) is well established material for the passivation of high voltage negative beveled power diode. In our previous works, the conduction mechanism of the DLC has been carefully described through the characterization and the physical modeling of Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor (MIS) structures. In addition, the effects on the breakdown voltage and leakage current have been clarified comparing the available experiments with numerical simulations. However, the role played by the DLC on the breakdown voltage temperature dependence is still lacking. In this work, it has been investigated assuming a release of the trapped charges with increasing temperatures.