Analysis of Electrical Characteristics due to Deep Level Defects in 4H-SiC PiN Diodes

Silicon carbide (SiC) has emerged as a promising material for next-generation power semiconductor materials, due to its high thermal conductivity and high critical electric field (similar to 3 MV/cm) with a wide bandgap of 3.3 eV. This permits SiC devices to operate at lower on-resistance and higher breakdown voltage. However, to improve device performance, advanced research is still needed to reduce point defects in the SiC epitaxial layer. This work investigated the electrical characteristics and defect properties using DLTS analysis. Four deep level defects generated by the implantation process and during epitaxial layer growth were detected. Trap parameters such as energy level, capture-cross section, trap density were obtained from an Arrhenius plot. To investigate the impact of defects on the device, a 2D TCAD simulation was conducted using the same device structure, and the extracted defect parameters were added to confirm electrical characteristics. The degradation of device performance such as an increase in on-resistance by adding trap parameters was confirmed.