Diamond Electronic Devices

Journal Article · Mon Nov 01 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3518277· OSTI ID:21428724

Isberg, J ^[1]

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1. Division for Electricity, Uppsala University, Box 534, S-751 21 Uppsala (Sweden)

For high-power and high-voltage applications, silicon is by far the dominant semiconductor material. However, silicon has many limitations, e.g. a relatively low thermal conductivity, electric breakdown occurs at relatively low fields and the bandgap is 1.1 eV which effectively limits operation to temperatures below 175 deg.n C. Wide-bandgap materials, such as silicon carbide (SiC), gallium nitride (GaN) and diamond offer the potential to overcome both the temperature and power handling limitations of silicon. Diamond is the most extreme in this class of materials. By the fundamental material properties alone, diamond offers the largest benefits as a semiconductor material for power electronic applications. On the other hand, diamond has a problem with a large carrier activation energy of available dopants which necessitates specialised device concepts to allow room temperature (RT) operation. In addition, the role of common defects on the charge transport properties of diamond is poorly understood. Notwithstanding this, many proof-of-principle two-terminal and three-terminal devices have been made and tested. Two-terminal electronic diamond devices described in the literature include: p-n diodes, p-i-n diodes, various types of radiation detectors, Schottky diodes and photoconductive or electron beam triggered switches. Three terminal devices include e.g. MISFETs and JFETs. However, the development of diamond devices poses great challenges for the future. A particularly interesting way to overcome the doping problem, for which there has been some recent progress, is to make so-called delta doped (or pulse-doped) devices. Such devices utilise very thin ({approx}1 nm) doped layers in order to achieve high RT activation.

• OSTI ID: 21428724
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1292, Issue 1; Conference: E-MRS Symposium F: 2010 wide bandgap cubic semiconductors - From growth to devices, Strasbourg (France), 8-10 Oct 2010; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3518277; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ACTIVATION ENERGY
CHARGE TRANSPORT
DIAMONDS
DOPED MATERIALS
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
ELECTRON BEAMS
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE
ENERGY GAP
GALLIUM NITRIDES
JUNCTION TRANSISTORS
LAYERS
SCHOTTKY BARRIER DIODES
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
SILICON
SILICON CARBIDES
SWITCHES
THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY
BEAMS
CARBIDES
CARBON
CARBON COMPOUNDS
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
ELEMENTS
ENERGY
EQUIPMENT
GALLIUM COMPOUNDS
LEPTON BEAMS
MATERIALS
MINERALS
NITRIDES
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NONMETALS
PARTICLE BEAMS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PNICTIDES
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES
SEMICONDUCTOR DIODES
SEMIMETALS
SILICON COMPOUNDS
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
TRANSISTORS