At the heart of all power electronic systems lies the semiconductor, responsible for passing large amounts of current at negligible power losses in the on-state, while instantaneously switching to withstand high voltages in the off-state. For decades silicon (Si) has dominated nearly all aspects of electronic systems including power. As importunity for efficiency at higher power and fast switching speeds grows, the environments with which these systems are being tasked to operate in has also increased in rigor. This has placed semiconductors at the forefront of innovation as novel materials are being explored in hopes of meeting the demands for the future of power electronics. This exploration of novel materials for power electronics has come to fruition as the performance limits of narrow bandgap (EG) materials such as Si (1.1 eV) have been reached. The EG is a key measure of a materials ability to operate at high voltages and within high temperature environments. This is due to the direct relationship of the EG to the critical field strength which enables increased performance beyond that of narrow band gap materials such as Si and gallium arsenide. Wide bandgap (WBG) materials such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) with EG 3.3 eV and 3.4 eV, respectively, have emerged within the power electronics field to offer increased breakdown voltages (VBR) at lower on-resistances. However, ultrawide bandgap (UWBG) devices possess greater potential with superior performance limits in comparison to SiC and GaN.
Ga2O3 (4.8 eV) is the only UWBG semiconductor with melt-growth capabilities that has already demonstrated research grade wafers up to 6" in diameter. Ga2O3 is also advantaged by the ability to grow thick, lowly-doped homoepitaxial drift regions from methods such as halide vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) and metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD).
This makes Ga2O3 a prime candidate for vertical power rectifiers as thick, high quality drift regions are a necessity for high voltage devices such as the PN diode, junction barrier Schottky (JBS) diode, merged-PiN-Schottky (MPS) diode, and Schottky barrier diode (SBD).
However, Ga2O3 exhibits a lack of p-type conductive that arises from an absence of dispersion within the valence band maximum. This has caused researchers to abandon the idea of homojunction devices that Si, SiC, and GaN devices benefit from; shifting to a heterojunction approach where NiO (3.7 eV) provides the source of p-type conductivity. This complicates fabrication and device characterization particularly for the Ga2O3 JBS diode where an etched Ga2O3-NiO heterojunction has thus far been unreported throughout the literature. This work investigates the numerous individual aspects that comprise an etched Ga2O3 heterojunction device which include the etching method, post etch damage removal and its impact on electrical performance, and ohmic and Schottky contacts critical for a JBS diode; all culminating in the demonstration of a JBS and MPS diodes. We also report our investigations into co-doping of Ga2O3 that yield degenerately doped epitaxial layers with record mobility (μ) values. While not directly correlated with Ga2O3-NiO heterojunction devices, this study lays the ground work for semi-insulating Ga2O3 depletion into unintentionally doped (UID) n-type Ga2O3. / Doctor of Philosophy / Power semiconductor devices reside at the center of many critical infrastructures that power modern society. These systems include but are not limited to; telecommunications, power supplies, motor drives, and electric trains. The semiconductors embedded within these systems are tasked with passing large amounts of current at negligible power losses in the on-state, while simultaneously withstanding high voltages in the off-state. For decades, the ground breaking discoveries and engineering feats produced by scientist and engineers have propelled the field of power electronics forward. As importunity for efficiency at higher power and fast switching speeds grows, the environments with which these systems are being tasked to operate in has also increased in rigour. These demands cannot be met with traditional silicon (Si) based devices as the material properties have been pushed to their performance limits. This has led to emerging and novel wide and ultrawide bandgap semiconductors such as silicon carbide (SiC), gallium nitride (GaN), and gallium oxide (Ga2O3) becoming a greater presence within the field of high power electronics. Ga2O3 in particular has seen a recent surge in interest within the power electronics communities due to the prospect of meeting the aforementioned demands, aided by a number of advantageous material and electrical properties. Ga2O3 is unlike any other wide or ultrawide bandgap material in that high quality Ga2O3 films known as epitaxial layers can be deposited atop native meltgrown Ga2O3 substrates. This reduces any mismatch or undesirable boundaries between the substrate and epitaxial layers that could otherwise impact device performance. This makes Ga2O3 a prime candidate for vertical power rectifiers, or switches such as a PN diode, junction barrier Schottky (JBS) diode or Schottky barrier diode (SBD). However, there has been no realization of p-type conductivity, or positively charged mobile carriers, within Ga2O3. This makes devices such as the PN and JBS diode difficult, as they rely on both n- and p-type conductivity. Without a source of p-type conductivity, Ga2O3 will be limited to unipolar devices that lack superior breakdown voltages and robustness. This work explores Ga2O3 heterojunction diodes, specifically the JBS diode, where nickel oxide (NiO) is used as the source of p-type conductivity. The need for a heterojunction introduces a host of issues that are otherwise not seen within bipolar semiconductors such as Si, SiC, and GaN. Our work details the analysis of the individual aspects that comprise a Ga2O3 heterojunction barrier Schottky diode including the etching process, etch damage removal, NiO sputtering, and contact formation. Our efforts have provided insight into unexplored areas within the Ga2O3 literature, leading to the first demonstration of a Ga2O3 merged- PiN-Schottky (MPS) diode; a more robust JBS diode capable of handling surge current.
This work serves to further Ga2O3 as a viable semiconductor for the future of high power vertical rectifiers.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/119244 |
| Date | 03 June 2024 |
| Creators | Spencer, Joseph Andrew |
| Contributors | Materials Science and Engineering, Zhang, Yuhao, Tadjer, Marko, Khodaparast, Giti, Reynolds, William T. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/x-zip-compressed |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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