Effect of crystallographic dislocations on the reverse performance of 4H-SiC p-n diodes

A quantitative study was performed to investigate the impact of crystallographic dislocation defects, including screw dislocation, basal plane dislocation, and threading edge dislocation, and their locations in the active and JTE region, on the reverse performance of 4H-SiC p-n diodes. It was found that higher leakage current in diodes is associated with basal plane dislocations, while lower breakdown voltage is attributed to screw dislocations. The above influence increases in severity when the dislocation is in the active region than in the JTE region. Furthermore, due to the closed-core nature, the impact of threading edge dislocation on the reverse performance of the p-n diodes is less severe than that of other dislocations although its density is much higher. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.