Identification of the primary compensating defect level responsible for determining blocking voltage of vertical GaN power diodes

King, M. P.; Kaplar, R. J.; Dickerson, J. R.; Lee, S. R.; Allerman, A. A.; Crawford, M. H.; Fischer, A. J.; Marinella, M. J.; Flicker, J. D.; Fleming, R. M.; Kizilyalli, I. C.; Aktas, O.; Armstrong, A. M.

doi:10.1063/1.4966903

Title: Identification of the primary compensating defect level responsible for determining blocking voltage of vertical GaN power diodes

Journal Article · Mon Oct 31 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4966903· OSTI ID:1335469

^[1];

^[1]; Dickerson, J. R. ^[1]; Lee, S. R. ^[1]; Allerman, A. A. ^[1]; Crawford, M. H. ^[1]; Fischer, A. J. ^[1]; Marinella, M. J. ^[1]; Flicker, J. D. ^[1];

^[1]; Kizilyalli, I. C. ^[2]; Aktas, O. ^[3]; Armstrong, A. M. ^[1]

Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Avogy, Inc., San Jose, CA (United States); U.S. Dept. of Energy, Washington, D.C. (United States). Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E)
Avogy, Inc., San Jose, CA (United States); Quora Technology, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (United States)

Electrical performance and characterization of deep levels in vertical GaN P-i-N diodes grown on low threading dislocation density (~10⁴ –10⁶ cm^–2) bulk GaN substrates are investigated. The lightly doped n drift region of these devices is observed to be highly compensated by several prominent deep levels detected using deep level optical spectroscopy at E_c-2.13, 2.92, and 3.2 eV. A combination of steady-state photocapacitance and lighted capacitance-voltage profiling indicates the concentrations of these deep levels to be N_t = 3 × 10¹², 2 × 10¹⁵, and 5 × 10¹⁴ cm^–3, respectively. The E_c-2.92 eV level is observed to be the primary compensating defect in as-grown n-type metal-organic chemical vapor deposition GaN, indicating this level acts as a limiting factor for achieving controllably low doping. The device blocking voltage should increase if compensating defects reduce the free carrier concentration of the n drift region. Understanding the incorporation of as-grown and native defects in thick n-GaN is essential for enabling large V_BD in the next-generation wide-bandgap power semiconductor devices. Furthermore, controlling the as-grown defects induced by epitaxial growth conditions is critical to achieve blocking voltage capability above 5 kV.

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Research Organization:: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC04-94AL85000

OSTI ID:: 1335469

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1330589

Report Number(s):: SAND-2016-3994J; APPLAB; 638999

Journal Information:: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 109, Issue 18; ISSN 0003-6951

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 8 works

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Barrier height modification and mechanism of carrier transport in Ni/ in situ grown Si ₃ N ₄ /n-GaN Schottky contacts Karpov, S. Y.; Zakheim, D. A.; Lundin, W. V. Semiconductor Science and Technology, Vol. 33, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6641/aaa603	journal	January 2018

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