Abstract
The effects of Ar inductively coupled plasma (ICP) treatment followed by a 600 °C-1000 °C rapid thermal annealing (RTA) on the n-type 4H-silicon carbide (SiC) Schottky-barrier diodes and n+-implanted ohmic contacts were investigated. The ICP treatment created a 3-nm-thick, sp2-C-rich, and amorphous layer at the SiC surface. The RTA repaired the bombardment-induced damages before metal deposition to avoid current degradation. This ICP + RTA-treated surface strongly pinned the Schottky-barrier height (SBH) at a minimum of 0.88 eV. In theory, the low SBH is beneficial to decrease the specific contact resistance ( ρC). ρCof the ICP + RTA-treated Ti ohmic contacts decreased to lower than 10-5 Ω cm-2 after 400 °C postmetal deposition annealing (PMDA). However, the additional O atoms, fixed in the amorphous layer by RTA, affected the ρCreduction. Fortunately, due to the chemical affinity for O of Ti, the in-diffused Ti could contend for the O atoms against the Si-O bonds during the PMDA. Therefore, the oxidized barricade was decomposed gradually, leading to the lowest ρC, 1.3× 10-6Ω cm-2 , after 600 °C PMDA. The lowest ρCis 25× and 8× lower than that of the Ni silicide and the nontreated Ti contacts, respectively, at the same doping concentration.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 8425987 |
Pages (from-to) | 3739-3745 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices |
Volume | 65 |
Issue number | 9 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Sep 2018 |
Keywords
- Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) treatment
- ohmic contact
- Schottky-barrier diode (SBD)
- Schottky-barrier height (SBH)
- silicon carbide (SiC)
- specific contact resistance