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We report on wafer-level measurements of the long-term stability of Ti and Ni ohmic contacts to n-4H-SiC during thermal treatments in air or air/moisture environments up to 500°C. Contact metallizations with and without a sputtered Ti (20 nm)/TaSi x (200 nm)/Pt (150 nm) diffusion barrier stack and Ti (20 nm)/TiN (10 nm)/Pt (150 nm)/Ti (20 nm) interconnects were compared. A protective coating consisting of a SiO x (250 nm)/SiN y (250 nm) stack deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) was used. The stability of the contact metallizations during long-term thermal treatments in air and air/moisture was studied. The best performance was achieved with Ti ohmic contacts without the Ti/TaSi x /Pt stack. This system successfully withstood 1000 h thermal treatment at 500°C in air followed by 1000 h at 500°C in air/10% moisture. After the aging, the contact failure ratio was below 1% and the specific contact resistivity amounted to (2.5 ± 1.1) 9 10 À4 X cm 2 . Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) cross-sectional analysis indicated no degradation in the contact metallization, demonstrating the effectiveness of the SiO x /SiN y protective coating in preventing oxidation of the contacts. These results are very promising for applications in harsh environments, where the stability of ohmic contacts is crucial.

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In this work we present 4H-SiC metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) with a stable protective coating for harsh environment applications. Both inversion channel (IC) and buried channel (BC) MOSFETs were realized on n-4H-SiC substrates with a p-epilayer. Stacked ONO gate dielectric and Ti/TiN/Pt/Ti interconnect were used. Ni and Ti ohmic contacts in combination with a-SiOx/a-SiNy and a-SiOx/a-SiC protective coatings were compared. The MOSFETs showed excellent transistor characteristics up to 600 °C and exceptional stability during long-term aging at 600 °C in air and during accelerated aging at 700 °C including temperature cycling and air/moisture environment.

We investigated the performance of different metallization/passivation systems for high temperature applications. The metallizations comprised a 150 nm sputtered Pt or a 150 nm e-beam evaporated PtRh layer on Ti/TiN underlayers, respectively. The passivation coatings consisted of amorphous PECVD SiOx, of amorphous stress-reduced PECVD SiNy, and of a SiOx/ SiNy stack. For samples with SiOx and SiOx/ SiNy passivation layers the electrical properties changed after a short high temperature anneal at 600 °C but then remained stable during further annealing. This was attributed to the formation of PtTi alloys, which stabilized the metallization stack. In samples with SiNy passivation a significant Pt out-diffusion into the passivation layer was observed. This led to a degradation of the electrical and mechanical properties. The best performance was achieved with Pt-based metallizations and SiOx or SiOx/SiNy passivations.

Ohmic contacts to SiC are the most crucial device components for the reliability of SiC devices in harsh environments. This work aimed at improving the reliability of Ni and Ti ohmic contacts to SiC using stable protective coatings. The stability of the contacts was investigated by means of long-term aging at 600 • C in air and air/moisture ambient as well as temperature cycling up to 700 • C in air/moisture ambient. The structural and chemical properties were investigated by means of XPS depth profiling and TEM analysis. The beneficial effect of a stable protective coating inhibiting the migration of oxygen/moisture into the contact metallization is demonstrated. Excellent reliability benchmarks are shown for Ti ohmic contacts with a PECVD a-SiO x /a-SiC protective coating. The results are very promising for harsh environment applications.

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